In these tough economic times it is increasingly important that your business is protected against those which struggle to pay their bills. There is nothing worse than working hard on a job and not getting paid at the end. Therefore it is important to ensure your trading terms and conditions are robust and correct.

What they do?

Terms and Conditions seek to provide a framework of the contractual terms under which businesses operate. They seek to clarify and set out the basis under which businesses carry out there dealings, what services and/or goods the business provides, how it is to be paid and what happens if a dispute arises. Terms and Conditions can be standardised to deal with the day to day transactions of a business without incurring the additional time and expense of drafting specific terms for each transaction.

How to make them enforceable

Terms will not be binding unless the seller makes sure that certain procedures are in place. Terms & Conditions will not be enforceable if they are merely attached to the back of an invoice which is delivered to the customer once the work has been carried out. The supplier or customer must view them before the contract has been agreed and entered into and therefore ideally they should be contained in a signed document and should be featured, for example, as part of a purchase order form or an account application form.

What can they cover?

• If you have a regular customer who continually pays late, you need a term which requires the customer to pay interest on late payments
• You can include dispute resolution provisions which will avoid, or help to avoid, court action.
• Include a retention of title clause so that the title to the goods only passes to the customer once they have paid in full
• Include confidentiality clauses to protect against disclosing sensitive information such as like prices and technical details of products
• Include limitaition clauses to exclude liability for circumstances beyond your business control or for damage caused to goods by your customers or outside of specific time periods.

In Summery

Terms & Conditions are rarely thought about by companies until a problem arises in which case it may be too late. Having a robust set of terms and conditions in place will make it much easier and quicker to recover outstanding debts owed to your business and provide protections from potential claimants. Having your own terms and conditions is important because it enables you, as a business, to eliminate ambiguity between you, your suppliers, and your customers.This greater clarity can help prevent disputes as your customers will have a clear understanding of the service/goods you will be providing

Terms should be reviewed on a regular basis to reflect and changes in business activities and to check that they comply and have taken into account any new legislation or relevant case law.

If you need any further information please contact Chris Taylor at Croft House on 01527 586605 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it