Auto renew contract

Rock_King

Help. Small business paying an HR company £400 month because I was pressurized into signing a contract five years ago. Contract expires next month but they say it auto renews unless I give them 6 months notice. Usual "not down to us sir, you should check the small print" conversation. Truth is, I cannot afford to carry on the £400 a month for another year. Any body have some ideas please?

paddyrg

You could simply not pay and see if they take you to court or not. £400/month for 5 years with a 6-month renewal period does sound like it may be thin ice reasonably-enforceability-wise so they may prefer to just let you go than risk the judge's opinion. Who knows? But if they're saying you're committed to another £25k over 5 years, that's effectively a £25k fighting fund if you do have to go to court.

I suggest the next step is talking with a contract law specialist lawyer - if that costs you £250 it could still be money well spent.

TheTracker

Paddy's suggestion is a good one. But before that, have a Google to see if anyone else has gone through the same experience and can offer tips. Try search terms like the company name and auto renew, or literally type in the offending contract clause. It's worth a shot.

AbbieCadabra

if it's the name i think it will be (very big company, P?), you should find a lot of info online about them & their tactics. there was a thread some months ago on UK business forum where this particular company were trying to tell everyone how they were cleaning up their act & they wouldn't dream of doing anything underhand, but they got ripped to shreds by the replies.

hope you find something useful.

Rock_King

AbbieCadabra wrote: »

if it's the name i think it will be (very big company, P?), you should find a lot of info online about them & their tactics. there was a thread some months ago on UK business forum where this particular company were trying to tell everyone how they were cleaning up their act & they wouldn't dream of doing anything underhand, but they got ripped to shreds by the replies.

hope you find something useful.

Big company beginning with P, yep that's them. I'll do a search and contact my local solicitor. My thoughts are though that a company whose job it is is to make sure contracts are water tight will have their own triple lined with lead.

paddyrg

Rock_King wrote: »

Big company beginning with P, yep that's them. I'll do a search and contact my local solicitor. My thoughts are though that a company whose job it is is to make sure contracts are water tight will have their own triple lined with lead.

Surprisingly, not always. A lot of people don't challenge contracts believing they'll be watertight, that they're somehow 'the law', or are intimidated and bullied by lawyers. Lawyers are often just paid thugs to posture and bully - look at Prenda Law in the USA for instance!

jjlandlord

Rock_King wrote: »

Contract expires next month but they say it auto renews unless I give them 6 months notice.

Unless a court deems that 6 months is excessive, which it doesn't seem to be especially in a business contract, I don't see how you could wriggle out of that clause.

Rock_King

I did mention in September that the contract runs out but that was too late to cancel. They did not mention then that I should have cancelled before though, just that it expires in March.
Should they have written to me? Car insurance normally gives a 14 day cancellation period, should this not be the same?

jjlandlord

They don't have to write to you to remind you of the deadline every year.

bris

Business and consumer contracts should not be confused as similar, they are not. Consumers are protected from certain things that are deemed unfair, businesses are not because businesses can seek legal help before signing.


Very similar to a lease for a commercial property, 6 months cancellation terms for break clauses are very much common and this is no different.