ConsumerWise hub
Contracts
How agreements are formed, what their terms mean, how to prove them and what follows when one side does not perform.
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14 guides and resources.
Start with the problem you recognise. Related pages cross-link to templates, tools, official sources and escalation routes.
How contracts are formed
The building blocks of an enforceable agreement and why labels are less important than what actually happened.
Offer & acceptance
Identifying the offer, the acceptance and whether the parties objectively reached agreement.
Terms & incorporation
How terms become part of an agreement and why timing, prominence and notice matter.
Written vs verbal contracts
Why many agreements do not need to be signed, and how verbal agreements can still be proved.
Online contracts
Checkout flows, tick boxes, confirmation emails, electronic signatures and retained contract information.
Distance & off-premises contracts
How contract formation interacts with statutory information and cancellation duties.
Contract changes
When a trader can vary price or terms and how fairness, notice and contractual wording interact.
Cancellation & termination
Contractual cancellation rights, statutory cancellation rights, termination for breach and exit charges.
Unfair contract terms
Fairness, transparency and prominent core terms under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Breach of contract
What counts as breach and the practical questions of causation, loss, remedy and evidence.
Misrepresentation
False statements that induce an agreement and the remedies that may follow.
Contract remedies
Damages, termination, price reduction, repair, repeat performance and other routes depending on the contract and legal framework.
Proving an agreement
Orders, screenshots, emails, call records, account notes, signed documents and conduct as evidence of an agreement.
Contract documents
How to identify the document that actually records the bargain - and what to do when the trader cannot produce it.
Reconstruct the agreement
A contract dispute is often an evidence problem before it is a legal argument.
Work out what was offered, what was accepted, what terms were incorporated and what each side did next. The strongest evidence is usually the material created at the time: checkout screens, signed or electronic agreements, confirmation emails, recorded calls, bills and subsequent performance.
Do not let a later description rewrite the transaction.
If an organisation later says an agreement was “only an application”, “not accepted”, “subject to another process” or governed by different terms, compare that statement with what the consumer was actually shown and what the organisation did at the time. Later internal labels can be relevant evidence, but they are not automatically conclusive.
ConsumerWise method
Do not start with the argument. Start with the record.
Contract disputes are usually easier to untangle when you reconstruct the agreement from the records that existed at the time. Work out what was agreed, which terms became part of the contract, what changed, and what remedy follows from any breach or misleading statement.
Evidence basics Build a chronology