{"id":187097,"date":"2024-04-14T11:03:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T10:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/?p=187097"},"modified":"2024-06-04T02:17:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T01:17:31","slug":"contract-clauses-disputes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/commercial-contracts\/contract-clauses-disputes\/","title":{"rendered":"What Contract Clauses Can Often Lead to Disputes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well-drafted and robust commercial contracts are vital for safeguarding your business from risks and avoiding disputes. However, specific contractual terms can present significant risks and lead to disputes. As a supplier to business customers, ensuring your contracts avoid such risks is vital. This article will explore the types of contract clauses that can often lead to disputes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Types of Clauses Can Result in Contract Disputes?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Written contracts must be well-drafted, clear, and robust. Various risks could arise if contract terms are unclear, incomplete, or unfair. For instance, arguments between a supplier and customer could be around mismatched expectations and the interpretation of specific clauses<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investing in well-drafted contracts from the outset is vital to avoid the risk of disputes arising<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a range of contract clauses that could result in disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, the following types of clauses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unclear Clauses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lack of clarity in contracts can result in disputes. Unclear terms<\/a> are likely to create confusion and mismatched expectations, which leave room for misinterpretation of contractual provisions. For instance, this could include vague contract terms around payment terms and a supplier\u2019s obligations. Ambiguity is, however, a key risk issue and could cause various problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missing Clauses <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If critical terms are missing from your contract, disputes could arise. For instance, if your contract does not fully define your obligations as a supplier, a customer could raise a dispute around the scope of work for their project\u2014for instance, if they believe you have failed to deliver what you agreed to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfair Clauses <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Too onerous terms could be deemed unfair, giving rise to disputes and challenges around whether they are legally binding<\/a>. This could be if a supplier\u2019s standard terms around liability are overly harsh and leave the customer without any meaningful remedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Practical Examples of How Disputes Could Arise?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let us explore a few practical scenarios around how a dispute could arise in this context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Payment Dispute<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your business has supplied services to a customer and verbally agreed that the customer could pay for instalments upon completion of each deliverable. However, your contract terms did not clearly define when each payment was due or any non-payment penalties. When the customer fails to pay on time, you suspend the services and charge interest. After repeatedly chasing your customer, the customer fails to pay outstanding amounts, and your business is forced to bring a debt claim against their business, resulting in significant time and costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Termination Dispute <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A customer who had committed to a long-term, profitable project with you seeks to terminate the contract. Your contract is vague and does not correctly specify an initial term in which the customer cannot terminate, leading to a dispute over the customer\u2019s termination rights. Due to the lack of clarity over termination rights, the customer argues they are entitled to terminate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Intellectual Property Dispute <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unclear intellectual property<\/a> terms could result in disputes. For instance, if you create content for a customer, the contract about whether the customer owns your created content is ambiguous. This can be particularly important for high-value projects involving creating business-critical intellectual property rights, such as a website created under a website development contract. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Supplier Contracts Checklist<\/div>\n
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Download this free Supplier Contracts Checklist to ensure your contracts will meet your business\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n\nDownload Now<\/a> <\/section>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

These are all practical examples of a handful of disputes which could arise between contracting parties under a contract. However, numerous disputes could arise from poorly drafted contract terms, so it is vital to prioritise robust contract drafting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Continue reading this article below the form\n <\/i>\n<\/a>\n

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