What to do when an oral contract breaks down?

[cazlit]

I have an oral contract with someone who lets me premises to teach a one hour exercise class once a week on a Tuesday. I have used the venue for eight weeks and was due to pay £320 last week. However when I arrived at the venue I had a message handed to me by another member of staff at the venue to say the agreement to rent the premises for an additional hour each week on a Wednsday had been withdrawn. With less than 24 hours notice I had to cancel my new class which was professionally embarassing and leaves me with loss of income as I am not able to source another venue at such short notice. In a fit of pique I did not leave the cheque for the Tuesday hall hire.
I have found a new venue but the old venue does not know this.

Today she rang and asked for the money. I explained I was upset by her actions but she manipulated my words and denied our agreement. This made me quite cross and I brought up several problems with the venue such as: once it was dirty and twice it was too cold.At that point she told me she would withdraw my Tuesday class too. I replied that I would continue to withhold payment if she broke our agreement. She advised me that I would be hearing from her solicitor and hung up. Oh dear.

I do intend to pay for the hire period I have used as I have no wish to get into a legal battle. However I would be interested to hear if people know whether I am within my rights to deduct payment for the problems with the venue ( as described above), loss of earnings and inconvenience/time wasted rearranging classes.

Many thanks

[Guest]

Re: What to do when an oral contract breaks down?

There is no specific "right" to withhold or reduce your payment, either in statute or common law (notwithstanding the Scottish “right of retention”) and any such rights would have to have been mutually agreed at the time that you entered the contract. Since this was an oral contract such terms are unlikely to have been included. However, if you are unhappy about the treatment you have received, or the condition of the premises you were due to pay for, you may wish to deduct an appropriate sum from the total. Conversely, since you did not give any effective notice of intention to withhold payment at the time, you may have a hard time convincing a judge of why you are entitled to do so, should the other party make good on their threat to involve solicitors.

If you arrived on Tuesday, but failed to leave the cheque after being told of the cancellation of the Wednesday classes, presumably the cheque was already written out and you have only since decided that the hall was dirty and too cold. This may be too late because if you were unhappy, why attend with the intention of paying the full amount?

Turning now to the loss of earnings and inconvenience/time wasted rearranging classes, you may have a valid reason to negotiate a discount on the sum owing and that is where you should direct your energy. For example, you may wish to send them a cheque in full and final settlement of the hall hire that you have taken, less a sum for the loss of earnings and inconvenience and thus avoid any litigation. If you do this now, you may find that they accept this payment and you will not find yourself embroiled in any costly and time consuming litigation.

[cazlit]

Re: What to do when an oral contract breaks down?

Thank you.
Just to clarify, I had complained about the hall being cold in an earlier telephone conversation and it remained cold for a further week, though to be fair this problem was resolved the last time I used the venue.
Since my post I have received an email asking me to pay at my next class or the venue will no longer be available to me. So abit of a u-turn from the hirer and no whiff of a solicitor.
I think I will deduct a small amount and submit my payment with a brief covering letter and wait and see what happens. I have a feeling the hirer will just leave things be and if she doesn't I'll just pay up. I have no wish to get into a legal wrangle.

I think my lesson is to make sure anagreement is clear from the start. It would be hard to call our letting agreement a contract. The venue has neve been let before and I phoned out of the blue with a request to hire the hall.The phone conversation was brief and wooly and no real terms were discussed. I have no idea what a court of law would make of it.

I am looking forward to telling her I no longer need the venue.

Thanks again.