Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale Template

Further Information

Why have written terms and conditions?

In the everyday life of a busy business with the predominant need to secure contracts of sale or purchase, attention to the contract itself can often be overlooked. This can have disastrous consequences as an imprecise or non-existent written contract can often leave the respective rights and responsibilities of the parties unclear. As a consequence, businesses can be held up from running their usual operations, and, in many cases, expensive and lengthy legal action ensues.

When dealing with customers, therefore, it is important to have standard contract terms (often called 'terms of business' or 'terms and conditions') to ensure that the parties are fully aware of their rights and obligations from the outset. Our Terms and Conditons of Sale template documents serve this purpose.

Written terms and conditions form a contract between the buyer and seller and set out what each party is agreeing to. Core terms found in a good set of terms and conditions and associated documentation include details of the goods or services being supplied, the price, how payment is to be made, and how and when they are to be delivered. Standard terms and conditions also allow interest to be claimed from other businesses for late payment of a commercial debt and provide retention of title until the goods are paid for (i.e. the supplier of goods protects itself against non-payment by retaining ownership of the goods until payment is received).

An agreement that is not formally expressed will still be legally binding but there is less chance of misunderstandings or disputes arising if the terms and conditions are clearly set out in writing.

There is no general requirement in law that contracts have to be signed. If the parties do stipulate that a contract will have no effect until signed, then, of course, there will be no contract until signature has been applied. If a contract is signed, then the party signing will be bound by the contract whether or not he has read the terms or even understood them.

You must bring the terms and conditions information to the attention of the other party in a way which will allow them to be incorporated into the contract. If the terms and conditions are set out on the reverse of any quotation or order acceptance, you should always ensure you fax both pages of a double sided document and consider inserting a reference on the front page to your terms and conditions on the reverse.

B2B and B2C Sales

In trading contracts a distinction is made between business to business (B2B) sales and business to consumer (B2C) sales (where the buyer is buying for their personal use, rather than for business purposes) as the law provides far greater protection to consumers than business customers. The law protects consumers against unfair standard terms in contracts they make with traders. A standard term must be expressed in plain and intelligible language. A term is open to challenge if it could put the consumer at a disadvantage because he or she is not clear about its meaning - even if its meaning could be worked out by a lawyer. If there is doubt as to what a term means, the meaning most favourable to the consumer will apply.

The Standard Terms and Conditions documents offered here have been drafted to suit a broad range of businesses. We offer documents suitable for the sale of goods and/or services, to either consumers or other businesses. We also offer a range of terms and conditions (B2C), tailored to the needs of specific trades. For more about tailored terms and conditions select a trade name from the drop-down list in the Documents by Trade section on the left.

These documents set out the Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale where you, the seller, are contracting with a buyer in the course of a business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C) transaction, for the supply of goods and/or services on the seller's terms.

In addition to the legal documents to download above we offer other versions for those selling just goods or just services. These are listed below in the Related Documents section.

We also sell two versions of each of our B2C standard terms and conditions documents: one suitable for use when selling to a consumer in their home, another's home or at an event (i.e.: doorstep selling) and another more familiar document suitable for other selling situations. Please read our information page on Doorstep Selling Regulations if you are unsure which version you require. When doorstep selling, the seller must provide the customer with a cancellation notice. We provide this notice with the doorstep selling version of our standard B2C T&Cs as well as a separate document to use when obtaining the customer's consent to provide goods and/or services before the end of the cancellation period.

If you are trading online with other businesses or with consumers you should ensure that you have appropriate contract terms and conditions of sale published on your website. We have a Web Sales Agreement here and this should be accessible from any location and acceptance of the terms should be included as part of the purchase process.

After an order is received you should immediately confirm by email the details, description and full price for the goods or services (including any delivery charges and payment details) together with information on the right to cancel if the buyer is a consumer. The email should also include your business name and geographical address to which the consumer may address any complaints, details of any guarantees or after-sales services and, if a contract lasts for more than a year or is open-ended, the contractual conditions for cancelling it.

Sample

You can view samples online of completed Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale by following this link for B2B: View Sample or this link for B2C: View Sample.

Features

These documents are suitable for businesses based in the UK: England, Scotland and Wales and includes clauses covering:

price
payment
specification of goods and/or services
delivery
customer's obligations
supplier's obligations
limitation of liability
proposal schedule
cancellation and refunds (B2C)
alterations (B2B)
warranty (B2B)
indemnification (B2B)
intellectual property rights (B2B)
termination (B2B).

There are also Terms and Conditions of Purchase for use in buying goods and services.

These documents are also available as part of a Commercial (£39.10), Business (£99) or Full (£199) Annual Subscription. These subscriptions give you access to wide range of documents, packages and forms for a single annual discounted fee.

If you are looking for the other variations of the Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale, other than Trade Specfic documents mentioned above, these are listed below:

B2B Terms and Conditions

T&Cs B2B Goods, as a .docfile.

£17.94 inc VAT

Terms and Conditions of Sale Templates

Further Information

Sample

Features

Related Documents

Business Documents