Drafting terms and conditions

Hello! I am Gemma, a legal assistant at Lawyer Destroyer, and I would be happy to help you with this.

Putting together solid terms and conditions is a great way to protect your business, manage customer expectations, and avoid misunderstandings down the line.

Because I do not know yet whether you are selling goods, services, or digital content, or whether your customers are ordinary consumers or other businesses, I will give you a broad overview. The exact rules shift quite a bit depending on those details, especially if you are selling to consumers, as they have strict protections under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Here are the core things you should generally include in your terms and conditions:

1. Who you are and how to contact you
You need to state your official business name, registered address, company number if you have one, and clear contact details so your customers know exactly who they are dealing with.

2. How the contract is formed
Be clear about exactly when a binding agreement is created. For example, in an online shop, is it when they place the order, or only when you send a dispatch email? This protects you if you accidentally list an item at the wrong price and need to cancel the order before shipping.

3. Description of goods or services
Explain what you are providing, or clearly point the customer to the exact product description on your website or quote. Clarity here is your best defence against a customer claiming they did not get what they paid for.

4. Price and payment terms
Set out how much things cost, whether VAT is included, when payment is due, and what payment methods you accept. If you charge late payment fees or interest, you need to state that clearly here too.

5. Delivery or performance timelines
Explain how and when you will deliver goods or carry out your services. You should also explain what happens if there are delays outside your control, and who is responsible for paying shipping costs.

6. Cancellations, returns, and refunds
This is especially important if you sell to consumers online or over the phone. Under the law in England and Wales, consumers usually have a 14 day cooling off period to cancel these sorts of orders for a full refund, though there are exceptions for bespoke or perishable items. You need to set out exactly how they can cancel, time limits for doing so, and who pays for the return shipping.

7. Limitation of liability
This section caps how much money you might have to pay a customer if something goes wrong. However, you cannot restrict your liability for absolutely everything. For example, under English law, you can never legally exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by your negligence.

8. Data protection
You should briefly mention how you handle customer personal information to comply with UK data protection laws, and provide a link to your full privacy policy.

9. Governing law and jurisdiction
You should state that the contract is governed by the laws of England and Wales, and that any disputes will be dealt with in the courts of England and Wales. This helps stop you from being dragged into a foreign court if you sell to an international customer.

Practical next steps:

Tailor them to your business. It can be very tempting to copy terms from another website, but their business model might be completely different to yours, leaving you with terms that do not actually protect you.

Make them visible before the sale. Terms and conditions are only legally binding if the customer has a realistic chance to read them before they commit to buying. Having an unticked box at the checkout asking the customer to confirm they have read and agreed to the terms is generally a sensible way to handle this online.

If you can tell me a little more about exactly what your business sells and who your main customers are, I would be very happy to give you some more specific pointers on what else you might need to include.