Double Glazing contract sighned by someone with Mental Health Issues

sprocker1

Hello
We have a family friend who is now 70, and has been suffering with various Mental Health issues over the past 15 years, treatment has been mainly succesfull, the person has had 3 relapses. The last being late last year.
Double Glazing salesman cold calls, and this person accepts quote, to be paid off at £250 per month. THEY ARE WELL OUT OF THE COOLING OFF PERIOD.
Person has a relapse and is sent to a Mental health unit for 3 weeks, Shortly after this, I DO NOT KNOW the exact time scale.. But it IS NOT MONTHs, it then becomes apparent that this contract has been signed.
A phone call to the office of the company results in "TOUGH Contract has been sighned...." cooling off period explained etc. The double Glazing has been ordered and will be fitted end Jan, beg Feb.
Formal letter to be written tomorrow......
Any advice please?
It has also come to light that this person is now also suffering from Altsimers deceise..... (Sorry my spelling is dreadfull)
There is a full documented medicle history, including the last spell spent in the unit Nov/Dec last year.
It is our feeling that the person was unwell when the contract was signed.
Many thanks for your advice.

unholyangel

Can their doctor confirm that there is no way they could have been aware/understood the contract when it was signed?

I'm trying to remember the legal term for it but for some reason it is completely eluding me :mad:

bod1467

Mentally competent? Is that what you're looking for? (Guess).

mo786uk

Capacity

They didn't have the capacity to sign the contract.

You need a ful lmedical hsitory fro mdocs, send it to the company saying you want it cancelled.

Might be worth reporting to to Trading Standards if they have obviously taken advantage of someone who has mental health issues.

unholyangel

mo786uk wrote: »

Capacity

They didn't have the capacity to sign the contract.

Diminished capacity rings a bell......something along those lines!

sprocker1

Thats great thanks..... Also managed to find out who the individual directors are...... so it maybe that we appeal to their better nature as well.....??
Letter to be written today, I will keep you posted.

unholyangel

Good luck and hope you get it sorted

Gothicfairy

Doesn't this come under the same ruling about teenagers signing contracts ? It might well be worth a call to consumer direct as they will be able to tell you word for word what you need to say and how to go about getting it sorted out.

Good luck though as these kinds of thing make me very angry, my father before he passed was " as mad as a box of frogs" his words..lol but he got suckered in to Readers Digest and must have spent thousands through them and they refused to cancel anything, even on his death they were trying hard.

Optimist

A contract can still be binding the other person reasonably believed that the person entering into the contract had full capacity at the time of making the contract.

It would be difficult to prove that the salesman, did not realise that your friend did not have full mental capacity unless such signs were obvious.

I would suggest in the first instance contacting a organisation such as MIND

Flyboy152

Has any work been started yet?

Has she paid them any money yet?

sprocker1

a deposit has been paid, but no work started......

However i obtained the directors details, and one of them seemed to be very understanding (On the phone anyway) Letter sent last night, aswell. A copy was also sent to the GP
Fingers crossed!
If the company does refund / act in a understanding way..... then problem solved!!

Fingers crossed.... and thanks for the imput so far!