Auto Renewal Contracts

[Frank Harvey]

I signed a 3 year contract for the supply of telephone voice over and music for a telephone system approximately 5 years ago for my small business. I am in the process of upgrading my system to save costs on our high usage of telephone calls by going over to VOIP.

Because of this I telephoned them today to enquire about a notice period and they have informed me that the contract has a rollover period after 3 years of another 3 years.

This came as a great surprise to me as I was not aware of this clause, I was not informed on signing the contract and I have not received an email after the 3 years to inform me I would be under contract for a further 3 years.

We are a small company and this seems very unfair and was wondering if this comes under unfair terms or is covered under any form of current regulation for small business.

Many thanks for your help

Kind regards Frank Harvey

 

[TheConsulter]

Sad to hear about this inconvenience. Was the agreement written or verbal?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Sorry to hear about it but another lesson to read the small print in the contract before you sign, so easily done with a smart sales person, but expensive lesson to learn, you signed you pay

Name the company may help others

 

[obscure]

.....I telephoned them today to enquire about a notice period and they have informed me that the contract has a rollover period after 3 years of another 3 years.

This came as a great surprise to me as I was not aware of this clause, I was not informed on signing the contract and I have not received an email after the 3 years to inform me I would be under contract for a further 3 years.

Are you saying that this clause isn't actually in the contract? (In which case it wouldn't be valid). Or are you saying you didn't read the contract/understand it?

If the clause was in the contract then you were "informed" because it was there for you to read. In relation to contracts, the law considers business owners to be capable of making their own decisions and binding their business in contracts based on those decisions. I'm afraid it is no one else's responsibility to inform you of what is written in the contract you are signing.

 

[TPTele]

Auto renewals of that length are fairly rare in today's telecoms market. Firstly you need to check that this was in the contract you signed.

Small businesses with less than 10 employees are normally treated as individuals so the legislation is different to that of big business. I would also ask for a copy of their Consumer Code of Practice and Complaints code since this outlines how you complain and who their mediator is to resolve these issues. If they don't have these they are liable for big fines from Ofcom.

 

[lpbusiness]

I signed a 3 year contract for the supply of telephone voice over and music for a telephone system approximately 5 years ago for my small business. I am in the process of upgrading my system to save costs on our high usage of telephone calls by going over to VOIP.

Because of this I telephoned them today to enquire about a notice period and they have informed me that the contract has a rollover period after 3 years of another 3 years.

This came as a great surprise to me as I was not aware of this clause, I was not informed on signing the contract and I have not received an email after the 3 years to inform me I would be under contract for a further 3 years.

We are a small company and this seems very unfair and was wondering if this comes under unfair terms or is covered under any form of current regulation for small business.

Many thanks for your help

Kind regards Frank Harvey

This sounds like it has the potential to be considered an onerous term. Under basic contract law (interfoto v stilleto), they should've informed you of this and made it clear when you started the contract. Is it definitely in there or have they just mentioned it now? Very rare for any business to have an auto-renewal of the exact same time frame.

 

[Darren Fletcher]

this post is 100% correct if you have less than 10 employees with ARC's are illegal they cannot enforce it..

<<<self promotion removed>>>

Darren Fletcher