Terms and conditions

Why terms and conditions?

In business, customer protection is becoming ever more extensive; that is certainly the case when dealing with private customers (B2C). As a business owner, you should therefore not take including well-drafted terms and conditions in your documents lightly.

If you fail to invoice the services or goods supplied within a statutory period, you can no longer demand payment. If an issued invoice has not yet been paid, follow the rules on debt collection. If you are too late with that, there is hardly anything you can do against a customer who does not pay. Simply brushing off a warranty is not legally allowed either. These are just a few examples of situations you need to be prepared for, especially when dealing with private customers.

A first step towards making clear agreements on this is good terms and conditions. These can, for example, specify a deadline for submitting complaints, consequences for late payment with an extra fee for your collection work, ... Specify how a complaint must be submitted and within what period. Also exclude your liability for e.g. defects due to incorrect use of a device and limit the consequences of damage or errors with a liability cap.

How do you apply terms and conditions?

In principle, terms and conditions must always be communicated and accepted in advance. That is why you should include your terms directly in a quote or order confirmation. That way, your customers immediately have the opportunity to 'take note of them'. If you only state the terms and conditions on your invoice, a dispute may arise later; the customer can argue that he only took note of the terms after the actual sale. So always provide your terms and conditions as early as possible in your relationship with the customer.

However, you cannot use terms and conditions to simply evade your responsibilities. The law provides a number of framework provisions and a minimum, unavoidable liability. But a local lawyer, or better still your professional association, can certainly help you with that. Associations such as UNIZO have some template documents with terms and conditions available (paid; access for members).

Drafting your own terms and conditions

You can draft terms and conditions yourself. In that case, take the following into account, among other things:

Deadlines: how long are your quotes valid? How and until when can a customer cancel an order? Are there agreements on payment in instalments and when are these payments expected?
Pricing: are there agreements on additional work? What provisions are there on price adjustments during the work?
Completion: is it clear when your service ends or your assignment is completed? Avoid disputes at handover.
Complaints procedure: is it clear to a customer which steps he can take in case of a complaint? On the other hand, is it clear to the customer which dunning fees or interest you as a business owner apply in case of e.g. late payment?
Statutory warranty: state the necessary rules regarding the standard statutory warranty clearly enough - even more important in case of any deviation or extension.
Privacy: give your customers a clear view of which data you collect from them and how you process it within the business.

Want to avoid unpleasant surprises? Then be sure to have your text reviewed by a lawyer.