Cooling Off Period Waiver Form Cheats Charter

DTurner1960

I am very concerned about the opportunity which cooling off period waiver forms provide to unscrupulous companies who exploit vulnerable people.

Let me give you the example of my 82 year old recently bereaved and moderately confused mother-in-law who was cold called by a driveway cleaning company. She has a very normal semi detached house with a brick driveway down the side installed about 3 years ago. 75sq metres in fact. The driveway company persuaded her to sign both a contract and a contract cooling off period waiver on the same morning for "cleaning" and "sealing" the driveway. The initial offer was £2,400 reducing to £1,600 and finally reducing to £1,500 which she signed to. She felt pressurised into agreeing this contract. It is our view that the work was unnecessary, that she was grossly overcharged and that the work when it was done was carried out to a very poor standard.

Those are not the points we wish to highlight here however. We are dismayed that the law seems to provide a mechanism for exploiting and abusing vulnerable people who should be able to avail themselves of the cooling off period to get advice from friends and relatives, to check prices at other companies who may provide a similar service and do all the sensible things that you would imagine are appropriate when spending lots of money like this. Instead these unscrupulous companies can simply persuade a vulnerable person to sign a contract and then a waiver form, crack on with work quickly, grab the cash and tell anyone coming after them they have the legal paperwork in place to protect themselves. It's a cheats charter. An open door for Rip Off merchants and I'm very surprised it exists for business of this type. No doubt there are some things which need to be done urgently where a cooling off period would be detrimental to the customer but getting your driveway clean ain't one of them.

alumende27

Unless I am mistaken (and I might be), you cannot waive your statutory rights away. Of course if they choose to clean and seal the driveway straight away and you agree to that you're liable to pay for what they've done up to the point that you wish to cancel.

I agree with the general sentiment though, it's disgraceful that companies take advantage of vulnerable people like this.

unholyangel

dsdhall wrote: »

Unless I am mistaken (and I might be), you cannot waive your statutory rights away. Of course if they choose to clean and seal the driveway straight away and you agree to that you're liable to pay for what they've done up to the point that you wish to cancel.

I agree with the general sentiment though, it's disgraceful that companies take advantage of vulnerable people like this.

You can't contract out of your statutory rights. However, your statutory rights under the Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation & Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, if you make an express request (in a durable medium for off-premises contracts) for work to begin early, you cannot cancel without liability.

OP's mum can still cancel but will possibly be liable for the cost of services already supplied up to the time the trader is informed of their decision to withdraw as this section explains.

naedanger

DTurner1960 wrote: »

I am very concerned about the opportunity which cooling off period waiver forms provide to unscrupulous companies who exploit vulnerable people.

Let me give you the example of my 82 year old recently bereaved and moderately confused mother-in-law who was cold called by a driveway cleaning company. She has a very normal semi detached house with a brick driveway down the side installed about 3 years ago. 75sq metres in fact. The driveway company persuaded her to sign both a contract and a contract cooling off period waiver on the same morning for "cleaning" and "sealing" the driveway. The initial offer was £2,400 reducing to £1,600 and finally reducing to £1,500 which she signed to. She felt pressurised into agreeing this contract. It is our view that the work was unnecessary, that she was grossly overcharged and that the work when it was done was carried out to a very poor standard.

Those are not the points we wish to highlight here however. We are dismayed that the law seems to provide a mechanism for exploiting and abusing vulnerable people who should be able to avail themselves of the cooling off period to get advice from friends and relatives, to check prices at other companies who may provide a similar service and do all the sensible things that you would imagine are appropriate when spending lots of money like this. Instead these unscrupulous companies can simply persuade a vulnerable person to sign a contract and then a waiver form, crack on with work quickly, grab the cash and tell anyone coming after them they have the legal paperwork in place to protect themselves. It's a cheats charter. An open door for Rip Off merchants and I'm very surprised it exists for business of this type. No doubt there are some things which need to be done urgently where a cooling off period would be detrimental to the customer but getting your driveway clean ain't one of them.

I agree with your point.

I know you were not highlighting your mother-in-law's case. Nevertheless I suggest you speak to Citizen's Advice about it, just in case they can suggest anything.

Ectophile

Unfortunately, that waiver rule is there for a very good reason.

Imagine your cold water tank has just burst. There's water pouring through the ceiling and you can't turn it off. So you call out an emergency plumber.

The plumber turns up on your doorstep holding a copy of his price list, and Terms and Conditions. He then says "Have a good read of that. If you still want me to do the work, call me back in 14 days, and I will be back to turn your water off".

So the waiver rule was added, so that you could sign a form on the spot to say that you couldn't wait the 14 days.

dieselv2

Print out/order a no cold calling sticker for her letterbox.

shaun_from_Africa

dieselv2 wrote: »

Print out/order a no cold calling sticker for her letterbox.

This sort of sticker will only deter the honest and law abiding traders and not those who are simply looking for easy targets to rip off.
I have such a sticker which was supplied by my local council and I still loads of door knockers selling goods and services.

naedanger

Ectophile wrote: »

Unfortunately, that waiver rule is there for a very good reason.

Imagine your cold water tank has just burst. There's water pouring through the ceiling and you can't turn it off. So you call out an emergency plumber.

The plumber turns up on your doorstep holding a copy of his price list, and Terms and Conditions. He then says "Have a good read of that. If you still want me to do the work, call me back in 14 days, and I will be back to turn your water off".

So the waiver rule was added, so that you could sign a form on the spot to say that you couldn't wait the 14 days.

The op mentioned that point in their final sentence. I believe they were advocating the waiver be limited to circumstances where there was an urgent need for the service.

shaun_from_Africa

naedanger wrote: »

The op mentioned that point in their final sentence. I believe they were advocating the waiver be limited to circumstances where there was an urgent need for the service.

But who would decide what was urgent or not?
I currently work out of the UK and only return infrequently but when I am there and need to get work carried out on my property, I often have to try to get this done at short notice.

Is getting a driveway cleaned urgent?
It wouldn't be urgent in many cases but if I am only in the UK for a couple of weeks then there is no way that I would be able to wait for a cooling off period to expire before the contractor would start the work.

naedanger

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

But who would decide what was urgent or not?

I currently work out of the UK and only return infrequently but when I am there and need to get work carried out on my property, I often have to try to get this done at short notice.

Is getting a driveway cleaned urgent?
It wouldn't be urgent in many cases but if I am only in the UK for a couple of weeks then there is no way that I would be able to wait for a cooling off period to expire before the contractor would start the work.

I don't believe it would be difficult to have the regulations reworded to prevent the type of abuse of the current "waiver" that the op has described.

The regulations would need to be redrafted and implemented in the same manner as any other amendments are made and implemented.

Your circumstance could be catered for in the wording if it was thought necessary. (Personally I am not convinced since if you had a genuine emergency e.g. a burst pipe it would presumably fixed without your presence. However if those drafting the regulations believed otherwise they would be able to draft wording to cover the situation.)

DTurner1960

Thanks to you all for taking time to comment on this matter. I simply wanted to highlight that the waiver option has become part of this rip-off cold calling company's game plan in exploiting their victims.

Before learning of my mother-in-laws misfortune I would have expected that when dealing with any individual who might be seen as more vulnerable then a company should have a responsibility to ensure that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the buyer has in fact been wary. We will see what CAB & Trading Standards have to say further as the company in questions have declined our very fair offer to attend dispute resolution.