I bet you've signed many contracts in your life, you have to sign a contract for everything and pretty soon you'll need to sign one just to use the toilet. I'm also willing to be that you think any contract you sign is legally enforceable no matter how ludicrous the terms are. But you'd be wrong.
I'm in the process of moving from my flat to a new rented house and in my tenancy agreement is states I am responsible for cleaning the gutters. This isn't the first time I've seen this ridiculous condition in a tenancy agreement, if you rent you may even find it in yours. Now obviously there is no way I am going to pay somebody to clean my landlords gutters, but the letting agent claim that it is my duty to prevent dilapidation of the landlords property whilst somehow forgetting that the landlord is still responsible for all maintenance of the property even while I live their. The greedy bastards want me to pay them for the privilege of living in their house while also paying to maintain it.
Good luck trying to enforce that contractual condition, for British citizens at least their is the Unfair Contract Terms Act on 1977. In essence it means I can sign a contract which dictates I have to walk about with a turd on my head every 5th Sunday, but no court in the land would force me to actually do it if I refused to participate in the 'Great Turd Hat March of 2012' (actually that would make for the best Olympics opening ceremony ever, excuse me while I phone Seb Coe).
Of course the term 'fair' is highly subjective so don't assume a court will deem a contract unfair just because you think it is insane. But the stupid and arbitrary nature of the British legal system is a completely different debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment