Pearne and Co Blog

Do You Engage in Doorstep Selling?

pearneandco — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:20:47 +0000

The Cancellation of Contracts Made in a Consumer’s Home or Place of Work etc Regulations 2008 came into force on 1 October 2008. They have a significant impact on your business if you enter into contracts with consumers (whether written or verbal) in any of the following places:

in the consumer’s home;
in their place of work;
in the home of another individual; or
on an excursion organised by you away from your business premises.

The regulations require you to:

give the consumer a right to cancel a contract to which the regulations apply;
give the consumer a cooling-off period of at least seven calendar days in which to exercise the right to cancel the contract, starting from the date of receipt of the notice of the right to cancel;
give the consumer written notice of his right to cancel the contract (whether the contract is written or verbal);
give the consumer the ‘Notice of the Right to Cancel’ at the same time the contract is made, and where the contract is wholly or partly in writing, the Notice must be incorporated in the same document. The Notice must also comply with certain specific requirements which are set out in the regulations.

Failure to provide a written ‘Notice of the Right to Cancel’ a contract, or to provide the information required – or failure to do so in accordance with the regulations – would result in your business being unable to enforce the contract against a consumer. Another potential consequence of failing to comply with the regulations is that you could be fined up to £5000. You should therefore ensure that you are aware of the regulations and how they affect your trading practices. For advice on this, please contact Pearne & Co.

What information about your company are you required by law to disclose?

pearneandco — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:27:12 +0000

The Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008 apply to all companies. They deal with the information which a company must provide about itself, and require you to:

Display the company’s registered name at:

its registered office;
any location at which it keeps its records available for inspection; and
any location at which it carries on business (except where that location is primarily living accommodation).

The name must be positioned at the relevant premises so that any visitor can see it easily.

You must also disclose the registered name in:

business letters, notices and other official publications;
bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements and order forms;
cheques and orders for money, goods or services signed by or on behalf of the company;
bills of parcels, invoices and other demands for payment, receipts and letters of credit;
applications for licences to carry on a trade or activity;
all other forms of business correspondence and documentation;
the company’s websites. It is not necessary to put the registered name on every page of the website, however it should be placed where it can be easily read.

In addition to these requirements to display and disclose the company’s registered name, the regulations also require a company to disclose the following information in business letters and order forms and on all websites of the company:

the part of the UK in which it is registered;
its registered number;
its registered office.

Where a company’s business letter includes the name of a director of that company (other than in the text of the letter, or as a signatory) the letter must disclose the name of every director of that company.

It is a criminal offence for a company to fail to comply with the regulations, and this makes the company and every officer who is in default liable to a fine. You should therefore familiarise yourself with the regulations, and check that you are making the necessary disclosures. If you need help with this, please contact us.

How can your business survive the economic downturn?

pearneandco — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:11:16 +0000

For most businesses, the credit crunch is top of their list of current high risk factors. In times of economic difficulty, the importance of having watertight terms of business in place with all of your customers, coupled with the means of administering them effectively, is key to riding out the financial storm.

Follow these simple steps to maximise your ability to receive what is owed to you efficiently, and on time:

always agree clear payment terms at the outset of any supply relationship, preferably in writing, ensuring that those terms deal effectively with issues such as the due date and payment of interest on overdue invoices;
evaluate the customer’s financial status before you deal with them, to minimise your exposure to risk;
send invoices and statements of account to your customers promptly;
make sure that genuine customer complaints are resolved as quickly as possible;
regularly review your credit control and debt management procedures to ensure that they are adequate for keeping on top of customer payment schedules.

Pearne & Co can give you practical and tailored advice on how to protect your business during these difficult economic times. Contact us for details of our fixed-fee services for preparing or reviewing standard terms of business.