Unfair Terms

XCloverleafX

Has anyone experience of unfair terms of contract?

I am just looking at this as payment has been requested in full before the delivery of my kitchen and I wondered if this would be classed as unfair terms. There are other issues too as the terms seem to be favorable to the business and none to the buyer.

Any help most appreciated, thank you.

Penguin_

I guess it is no different to you having to pay Tesco before they deliver your grocery shop really, or any other retailer charging you before the items are delivered. 

DB1904

XCloverleafX said:

Has anyone experience of unfair terms of contract?

I am just looking at this as payment has been requested in full before the delivery of my kitchen and I wondered if this would be classed as unfair terms. There are other issues too as the terms seem to be favorable to the business and none to the buyer.

Any help most appreciated, thank you.

Why would you think it unfair?

Surely you've bought online before and had to pay before it was dispatched. 

user1977

Please keep the story to one thread, rather than start a new one:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6334291/breach-of-contract#latest

XCloverleafX

I am reading section 5.8.8 of the unfair contract terms guidance which states:

Full payment in advance. Terms can be open to objection on the basis that they have the indirect effect of removing the consumer’s right to set-off, and therefore also of excluding liability unfairly. For example, that right is effectively removed where consumers are required to pay in full (or nearly in full) before the business has finished carrying out its side of the contract. 

bris

But you will still have the kitchen or am I missing something here?

Alderbank

XCloverleafX said:

Has anyone experience of unfair terms of contract?

I am just looking at this as payment has been requested in full before the delivery of my kitchen and I wondered if this would be classed as unfair terms. There are other issues too as the terms seem to be favorable to the business and none to the buyer.

Any help most appreciated, thank you.

The way that contracts work is that both sides are free to negotiate the terms until they are mutually agreed before signing. If agreement can't be reached you walk away.  For instance it would be quite usual for you to agree to pay in stages or to pay say 90% and reserve a portion until the work is completed. However the time to negotiate terms, and you seem to have several terms you are unhappy with, is always before you sign up.
A strategy of simply signing up with the intention of getting terms voided later on the grounds of unfairness is extremely risky, not least because you have no idea of whether the court will go along with your opinion on each term you challenge. The kitchen contractor will be keen to discuss terms pre-contract because they want your business. The court has no such incentive and in practice will tend to support agreed contract terms unless your argument is quite persuasive. There are a few terms which are automatically always unfair but not very many

XCloverleafX

The Terms were never pointed out to me and I was unaware when I signed the order form that they were on the back of another sheet! 

The kitchen saga is a long one but basically they organised a third party to install underfloor heating and flooring which I agreed the price. Within a few days of paying my deposit the labour costs doubled for this the be installed. I asked for the kitchen to be cancelled they refused. I explained they had quoted an incorrect company number on one of their letterheads to me which belonged to a previous involuntary liquidated company of theirs. 

After they refused to cancel it I asked for an invoice to which they replied they had stopped production. I was offered a £3,000 cancellation fee which I refused.

I informed Trading Standards who went to see them and the kitchen company stated they would hold the kitchen for me with no storage costs or increase in prices for 6 months. I resigned myself to having to accept the kitchen so 6 weeks later I emailed again asking for an invoice to which they replied they would have to get back to me as the price needs increasing due to increased costs.

It is a total mess and I now just want my £4,300 deposit back.

Aylesbury_Duck

Isn't the matter now with your insurance provider?  You shouldn't start other action until they've completed their course of action.  As explained on your other thread, you may end up in court with a technical victory against a company with no means to pay or which doesn't exist by the time it gets to court.

At this stage, there's nothing you can do but await your insurance company's verdict.

unholyangel

XCloverleafX said:

The Terms were never pointed out to me and I was unaware when I signed the order form that they were on the back of another sheet! 

The kitchen saga is a long one but basically they organised a third party to install underfloor heating and flooring which I agreed the price. Within a few days of paying my deposit the labour costs doubled for this the be installed. I asked for the kitchen to be cancelled they refused. I explained they had quoted an incorrect company number on one of their letterheads to me which belonged to a previous involuntary liquidated company of theirs. 

After they refused to cancel it I asked for an invoice to which they replied they had stopped production. I was offered a £3,000 cancellation fee which I refused.

I informed Trading Standards who went to see them and the kitchen company stated they would hold the kitchen for me with no storage costs or increase in prices for 6 months. I resigned myself to having to accept the kitchen so 6 weeks later I emailed again asking for an invoice to which they replied they would have to get back to me as the price needs increasing due to increased costs.

It is a total mess and I now just want my £4,300 deposit back.

Why did the price for labour more than double? 

You see, if there was a legally binding contract (which it sounds as if there was if you paid a deposit, else why would you have paid a deposit?) then neither party can alter it without the other's agreement. This means they can't renegotiate the price. 

An exception to this might be if they priced based on information you provided that was not correct or if the price they quoted was an obvious mistake (ie that you knew or should have known it was a mistake). 

But as there's a third party involved, who you need to speak to depends on particulars of what exactly was agreed and by whom. 

XCloverleafX

I think the labour more than doubled as the contractor they organised didn't realise they needed to put something down over the underfloor heating and before the flooring. I can't remember what it was called. When I questionned this with the kitchen company they said it was nothing to do with them and to contact the person who they organised to do the work!