Thread: Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999

The act is about the contractual rights of parties who are mentioned in a contract, without actually being a party to the contract.

Its a little complicated but lets say Alan, decides to help his mother by paying Brian to paint her house.

If Brian doesnt do a good job and has to be sued under the terms of the contract then adam has to sue - not his mother - as she was not a party to the contract.

However that promoted some inequity in the law and so this law was passed.

it briefly says that a third party MAY enforce a contract if-

1 the contract expressley provides that he/she may
2 the contract confers a benefit on him
3 is expressly identified in the contract by name, class, or answering a particular description.

I do not propose to transcribe the whole act here but my initial thoughts are that it may come into play when debts are sold on to DCA as the contract will be initially between the bank and the DCA with the debtor being the third party in that agreement.

I need to think about this some more and would welcome other peoples thoughts on the matter.