Contracts are, by definition, legally binding, therefore it’s difficult to cancel without financial penalty unless you can prove breach of contract. In contracts for services, you have three fundamental statutory rights - that the supplier will do the job with reasonable care and skill, at reasonable cost and within reasonable time. Any failure to do [...]

In many situations, the price is not agreed at the outset – such as having your hair cut, taking the car for a service or taking a taxi, and in such cases the assumption is that you will be charged a reasonable price. However, problems tend to arise where a service is commissioned, exact price [...]

Firstly, there is the assumption that the supplier will act with ‘reasonable care and skill’. This causes the greatest number of disputes and complaints simply due to the subjective nature of what is reasonable, and for this reason a court will take into account the nature of the service, the nature of the supplier and [...]

Generally speaking an estimate does not amount to an offer and is not legally binding, although if the final price is significantly higher than the estimate you can claim a breach of the statutory ‘reasonable cost’ term. You should be clear about getting a quote rather than en estimate, as this will then become the [...]