What is a contract?
Can I cancel a contract part way through its completion?
My gym has moved across town. Can I cancel my membership?
I hired a strobe light for my party, but it didn't work when I tried it out just before the party. Can I get my deposit back?
I paid for my new dishwasher by EFTPOS. Now, the retailer is trying to make me pay more because they say I haven’t paid what the dishwasher is worth. Can they do this?
A moving company damaged my bed when moving out. What can I do?
What is a contract?
Every day you enter into contracts without realising it. Every time you buy an ice-cream from the dairy, or a coffee from a café, you are entering into a contract. For the contract to exist, something of value has to be exchanged, and the contract may exist if you agree to pay the money in the future. A contract is when you offer to buy something and the seller accepts your offer. It can be spoken (verbal) or in writing. Although a contract doesn’t have to be in writing to be legally binding, some consumer contracts do
- hire purchase contracts
- door-to-door contracts
- contracts agreeing to act as a guarantor
- contracts for the purchase of a motor vehicle from a dealer
- contracts for the purchase of real estate
It’s a good idea to have contracts in writing to serve as proof of exactly what has been agreed. This helps prevent or resolve any disagreements in the future.
Can I cancel a contract part way through its completion?
Normally you can’t cancel a contract when the other party can still provide their side of the agreement. But this can change
- if the contract has a “termination” clause or term which gives you the right to cancel in certain circumstances with notice – check your contract for this
- if the other party agrees to accept your cancellation – for example, this may happen if they have another customer waiting for the same goods and services (but you may have to pay a cancellation fee)
My gym has moved across town. Can I cancel my membership?
This depends on whether it’s still reasonable for you to use the facilities and whether the gym has breached its contract with you. So if you signed up to a gym in town, and it has now moved out to the suburbs, you can argue that an important part of the contract (their location) has now changed. You would not have signed up to the contract if the gym was in its new location.
For more advice, contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau .
I hired a strobe light for my party, but it didn’t work when I tried it out just before the party. Can I get my deposit back?
When you agree to pay a deposit, there are conditions. You should have decided with the trader whether to pay a deposit, how much for, and under what circumstances it would be refunded. So basically, the terms for getting your deposit back depend on the terms you agreed to in your contract.
For more advice, contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.
I paid for my new dishwasher by EFTPOS. Now, the retailer is trying to make me pay more because they say I haven’t paid what the dishwasher is worth. Can they do this?
In most cases, once you have bought and paid for the goods the contract of sale is completed. This means the trader can't ask you to pay any more than you have already paid. But a trader can ask for more money if they can show that they made a genuine mistake that led to you paying much less than the average person would think the item is worth. So if you paid $120 for a new dishwasher, the trader can argue that you should have known this was not a fair price. If you disagree, the trader can take their case to the Disputes Tribunal which will look at all the circumstances and decide if you have to pay any more.
More information on this type of situation is available in our Consumer section.
A moving company damaged my bed when moving out. What can I do?
If any of your goods arrive damaged, you need to immediately give written notice of the damage to the moving company you had the contract with. You will then go through the company’s process to sort out your claim.
As you are moving your furniture to a new location, you’re covered by the Carriage of Goods Act. The Act is explained in our Consumer section