D2
Kojar Ahmed
In many contracts, there are both implied and express terms, these are clauses in place to
make sure that both the contractor and the consumer fulfil their part of the contract, there are
many different types of clauses that cover things such as exemptions, conditions, warranties
and price variations. I will now look into the two types of terms and explain how they are
used in a standard form contract.
Express terms concern the terms of the contract that are actually being agreed upon, the two
basic types of express terms are conditions and warranties. Conditions are the main points
that are being agreed upon in the contract and are vitally important to both the contractor
and consumer. All contracts will have conditions as it would be difficult to enforce a contract
without them. If the conditions within a contract are not fulfilled by the business or customer
then it may be voided and the customer may be able to sue for damages. An example of an
express term in a Three contract would be the agreed upon monthly price of a product.
Express terms are common on standard form contracts as they outline the important aspects
of said contract. Other aspects of express terms that are present on a standard form contract
include exemption clauses and price variation clauses.
Warranties are another aspect of express terms. Warranties are the secondary points made
in a contract, these are not as important so therefore cannot void a contract, although the
losing party may still be able to claim for damages. An example of a secondary point in a
contract would be if a van driver agreed to deliver goods to a shop on the first day of each
month, and the shop agreed to pay them on the 30th of each month. The delivery to the
shop would be a condition on the contract that is vital to a shop that needs the goods to sell.
Payment to the driver on the 30th of each month is not as important, therefore, the contract
would not be voided if the shop was one or two days late on payment. Warranties are
present on a typical standard form contract.
Exemption clauses are when one party attempts to limit their liability or responsibility, this
occurs when signs in a car park display ‘Car left at owner’s risk’ this has been done to
exempt whoever owns the car park from any claims. Exemption clauses are largely legal,
however, it is illegal to have an exemption that attempts to avoid any responsibility for
causing death or injury. Exemption clauses are largely present in standard form contracts in
the form of a fine print, usually at the bottom of the written contract.
A price variation clause is a time delay between the two individuals agreeing to the contract,
this may be between when they have agreed to sign a contract to when a contract is legally
signed. In contracts that include monthly payments, such as standard form contracts,
businesses can include price variation clauses that indicate the price of monthly payments
may fluctuate because of inflation. This is done to prevent customers from backing out of
contract by claiming they did not agree to a higher monthly payment. This is regularly done
by phone companies such as Three, where they indicate that the monthly price of a product
may change.
Implied terms are the aspects of a contract which are automatically present as soon as a
contract is made, hence the name ‘implied’. Different types of contracts will have different
implied terms, an example may be the following: