Verbal agreement to support reneged upon - breach of contract??

[weefy]

Morning,

Can a verbal agreement to support (repair an issue) that is then claimed wrong to have been offered be breach of contract?

E.g. a company repairs an expensive problem out of goodwill for Person A without explicitly accepting liability. Person B contacts the company with the same issue, company says they deal on a case by case basis, they don't think it's the same and not something they can support, but if it were the same it would be supported; if an independent report can provide supporting documentation they would look at it again.

As I understand a contract is formed by two parties when an offer is made, and it is accepted and there's something of value given up. In this instance I suggest offer to repair was made based on provision of a report, accepted, paid for report (consideration, something given up).

Company then realises their mistake in offering and back out by trying to say sorry and offer a small goodwill gesture as settlement. This offer is neither accepted or refused.

What's the legal position please, can this be relied as breach of contract in a court?
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[pt2537]

In principle there must be offer, acceptance, consideration and a meeting of the minds which is often referred to as an intention to be legally bound.

Its difficult to give any steer on this with only the limited info above

[weefy]

Many thanks for the reply (some reason I didn't get notified). I appreciate the limited info makes it a bit more difficult... They probably didn't have the intention to be legally bound, no, so if that is a key component I don't think it'd work out.. Maybe it'd be worth trying though as just another argument in a case which could be weak on limitations to convince a judge not to strike or dismiss.

However just to clarify in a real basic sense if I had agreed to do something in return for you doing something for me (and you did it, having paid for it), and I then don't keep up my end of the bargain, surely thats a breach in the simplest of forms?

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