Breech of contract

[IamPeckish Andrew]

First post here - Please bear with me!

We recently terminated a contract with a supplier. We were Tenants at Will in a Pub, and the contract was for washroom supplies and waste disposal. There was a minimum term of 5 years on the account, however this was not mentioned as far as I can remember when I signed the contract. The contract however does show this.

I had to terminate the contract as we were closing the business, 17 months into the 5 year contract. The supplier has exercised their right to issue an invoice for 75% of the total contract value, though this initial invoice has still not been recieved, some 8 weeks after notification of our withdrawl from the site. The invoice total was for £1214 plus VAT

We spoke to the provider about this and a settlement was agreed at 50% discount. However they stipulated this must be paid within 2 weeks. I explained we were waiting for the final invoices and credits to happen on our trade account and would need to the end of March to pay. We gave £400 to them as part payment. We stated in the call that we were able to make the £400 there and then but would not be able to make the remainder of the payment until the end of March.

16th March came and went and we had a call from them to try to collect the outstanding amount. I explained I needed a further 10 days to sort the final payment out, taking us to the end of March. The member of staff I spoke to promised to get a copy of the account to us to confirm the amount paid and the amount outstanding. We also asked for a copy of the contract as we had misplaced ours. This was the second time of asking for the contract.

As I had not heard anything further I called today to make the final payment. The company is now refusing to accept the payment for the initial outstanding amount and is claiming that as we did not pay the settlement figure by the date they allowed we are liable for the full payment.

I have covered the points as far as we are aware to them but they are now carrying out an investigation. My question is can they realistically enforce the total invoice when we agreed a settlement, and made a reasonable request in my opinion for confirmation of the status of the account?

It galls me to pay for a service we are not recieving, because the contract length was glossed over at the time of the sale. However I was prepared to come to a compromise. I would appreciate any thoughts, advice, help on this.

Thanks

Andrew

 

[WJP]

I presume you've checked the original contract over carefully and they are within their rights to issue the request for 75% of the total contract value? Do you have a written (even in an email) settlement wherein they agreed to you paying this minus a 50% discount? If not it may be difficult to prove that they agreed to this.

 

[IamPeckish Andrew]

Thanks - that confirms basically what I thought. I haven't actually checked the contract as I haven't got a copy of it - despite asking for a copy twice from the service provider. I am assuming that what they say is correct and its just an admin oversight. Hence my reluctance to pay in full. I had assumed that their offer would still stand - just can't see the logic in making an issue out of it. But then thats what you get for dealing with a big company - there is no understanding. It just annoys me a tad.

Andrew

 

[Atilla]

Perhaps refererring them to the letter you sent them previously confirming your acceptance of their verbal agreement to compromise?

Well, if they are struggling to supply you the contract, perhaps they lost the letter you 'sent' too?

 

[Michael Gerard]

How can you negotiate when you do not have a copy of the contract? Get a copy sent to you straight away and then carefully study it, and ensure you have actually agreed to the terms (ie a signature).

If you have signed the agreement, then I am afraid you are bound by the terms (notwithstanding the exceptions to this general rule). If you can negotiate a reduction, then this too must be put in writing, but beware, unless the service provider is receiving a benefit in accepting a reduction (ie quicker payment), then there is no onus on the service provider to abate the sum due.

 

[WJP]

Andrew, do you not have an original copy of the contract? Presumably you had copies to sign?