Holiday Cottage Booking

[Conniff]

Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 2083

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

 

Unfair Terms

5. - (1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

 

(2) A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.

 

(3) Notwithstanding that a specific term or certain aspects of it in a contract has been individually negotiated, these Regulations shall apply to the rest of a contract if an overall assessment of it indicates that it is a pre-formulated standard contract.

 

(4) It shall be for any seller or supplier who claims that a term was individually negotiated to show that it was.

 

Schedule 2

 

© making an agreement binding on the consumer whereas provision of services by the seller or supplier is subject to a condition whose realisation depends on his own will alone;

 

(e) requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation;

 

(i) irrevocably binding the consumer to terms with which he had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract;

 

OFT

 

■ consumers unfairly losing prepayments if

the contract is cancelled

 

■ consumers being subject to unfair

penalties

 

 

When a contract is cancelled consumers

should not generally end up paying for

 

something they have not received. This is

especially true where the contract is ended by

the supplier. Where the consumer causes the

cancellation, prepayments should not be

retained beyond what is needed to cover

losses and costs which the business suffers as

a direct result, and cannot reasonably reduce

 

by, for instance, selling to someone else.

 

Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 2083

 

There is another bit about not having to give extended notice, I will find that later.