Most often when you buy goods or services from someone, they will provide you with their terms and conditions of sale or purchase i.e. the infamous T&C’s. But what are these documents and are they really necessary?

What are Terms of Purchase or Terms of Sale?

These are the contractual terms and conditions of that will apply to all goods and/or services sold and purchased by a seller and a purchaser. Typically, these are contained in a written document that is either provided by the seller or in some cases, the purchaser (where the purchaser has a strict procurement process).

This document should set out the agreed elements of the sale and will include, inter alia, important protections to all the parties involved and the legal framework to complete the sale, etc.

This document has many different names depending on its type of application, e.g:

Services: when services are being rendered it can be called terms of service, conditions of service, terms of engagement, terms of use, etc.

Goods: when goods are being supplied terms of sale, terms and conditions of sale, conditions of sale, terms and conditions of supply, etc.

Are Terms and Conditions of Sale Necessary?

The short answer is YES!

If you do not have a document like this in place, any sale of goods or services you enter into will be governed by the common law, which typically is not ideal as, inter alia, it may gives rise to many disputes given the lack of legal clarity in respect of the terms applicable to the transaction, it does not afford parties the requisite protection.

Alot of the time, in an effort to save on costs people forgo incurring this nominal upfront cost, however this is a penny wise, pound foolish approach, as if a dispute does arise this will end up costing exponentially more than what the nominal upfront cost would have costed.

What is the Purpose of Terms and Conditions of Purchase or Sale?

As with most legal documents of this nature, written terms and conditions serve to provide, inter alia, legal certainty and clarity (i.e. spells out all the details of the transaction so that both parties share the same understanding), mitigates risk and disputes and ensure legal compliance.

If you would like to scheudle a consultation with one of our specialist business lawyers, contact our offices today.