Can shops legally refuse money.

[Electric_Andy]

You might want the law to be like that, but it isn't. If you offer me £1 for my car (a clearly inappropriate price) and I mistakenly think this was £10,000 (a reasonable price) and accept, regardless of the fact that I accept the offer the contract is voidable by the vendor

Also the previous poster said this: "However, if they charge you £10 by accident and the sale goes through, they are not allowed to call you back and say you've not paid enough. That's their mistake and their loss."

This contract is also voidable by the vendor

There is loads of case law to support this

In a physical shop how could they enforce it? They'd have to take you to court, providing they could get your name and address. Then you could show up in court with the receipt. On what basis do they then order you to return the item you bought? And what's the cut-off for whether it would be heard in court or not? £10, £1000, £5000?

Not arguing the law as such, but in what circumstances has this actually happened successfully?

 

[spen666]

You might want the law to be like that, but it isn't. If you offer me £1 for my car (a clearly inappropriate price) and I mistakenly think this was £10,000 (a reasonable price) and accept, regardless of the fact that I accept the offer the contract is voidable by the vendor

Also the previous poster said this: "However, if they charge you £10 by accident and the sale goes through, they are not allowed to call you back and say you've not paid enough. That's their mistake and their loss."

This contract is also voidable by the vendor

There is loads of case law to support this

I'm afraid you are wrong. The situation is the contract is NOT voidable. There could never ever be a contract.
For a contract there has to be three things
1. An offer - here I offer you £1 for your car
2. Acceptance - you accept the £1
3. Valuable Consideration - I pay over the £1.


The law is absolutely clear this makes the contract.

You cannot void a contract because you decide later you have made a bad deal.

To quote from one of the recognised legal textbooks Contract: The Law of Contract (Common Law Series)

"Contracts are said to be voidable on the basis of misrepresentation1, undue influence2 or duress3...."

Another legal textbook Goode and McKendrick On Commercial Law provides:

a voidable contract is one which a party is entitled to rescind, or to have set aside by the court, by reason of some external vitiating factor (deceit, misrepresentation,95 duress,96 undue influence,97

In the example I provided there is no misrepresentation, no undue influence and no duress and therefore the contract is not voidable
I would be interested to see your caselaw that you claim exists to support your claim that a contract is voidable because one party later decides they do not like the agreed contract.

You may want to look up the case Newbigging v Adam which provides Contracts are not voidable for mistake

 

[nickyboy]

I'm afraid you are wrong. The situation is the contract is NOT voidable. There could never ever be a contract.
For a contract there has to be three things
1. An offer - here I offer you £1 for your car
2. Acceptance - you accept the £1
3. Valuable Consideration - I pay over the £1.


The law is absolutely clear this makes the contract.

You cannot void a contract because you decide later you have made a bad deal.

To quote from one of the recognised legal textbooks Contract: The Law of Contract (Common Law Series)






Another legal textbook Goode and McKendrick On Commercial Law provides:






In the example I provided there is no misrepresentation, no undue influence and no duress and therefore the contract is not voidable
I would be interested to see your caselaw that you claim exists to support your claim that a contract is voidable because one party later decides they do not like the agreed contract.

You may want to look up the case Newbigging v Adam which provides Contracts are not voidable for mistake

"You cannot void a contract because later you decide you have made a bad deal"

It depends on the circumstances. What we are discussing is selling something obviously valuable at far less than the market price. The issue is whether the beneficiary under the contract (the purchaser) may reasonably understand that the agreed price is far below fair market value. If they do, then they are on difficult ground to enforce the contract

Consider the following circumstances:

1) The individual who sold the car has dementia. There was no misrep, undue influence or duress. However, in selling it for £1 the contract is voidable
2) The individual is not native to the country and didn't understand the currency. Again no misrep, undue influence or duress. Again, in entering into a contract demonstrably far below market price and with a reasonable explanation as to why they erroneously did so, contract is voidable
3) The contract was written in a way that an ordinary person may not reasonably be expected to understand what was being entered into. Such as a normal sale price but, hidden away in the small print, some huge commission. Again, voidable
4) The individual was a minor who had inherited the car from their aged aunt

 

[spen666]

"You cannot void a contract because later you decide you have made a bad deal"

It depends on the circumstances. What we are discussing is selling something obviously valuable at far less than the market price. The issue is whether the beneficiary under the contract (the purchaser) may reasonably understand that the agreed price is far below fair market value. If they do, then they are on difficult ground to enforce the contract

Consider the following circumstances:

1) The individual who sold the car has dementia. There was no misrep, undue influence or duress. However, in selling it for £1 the contract is voidable
2) The individual is not native to the country and didn't understand the currency. Again no misrep, undue influence or duress. Again, in entering into a contract demonstrably far below market price and with a reasonable explanation as to why they erroneously did so, contract is voidable
3) The contract was written in a way that an ordinary person may not reasonably be expected to understand what was being entered into. Such as a normal sale price but, hidden away in the small print, some huge commission. Again, voidable
4) The individual was a minor who had inherited the car from their aged aunt

So now you are talking a completely different situation to the one in the example I gave.None of your excuses was present in the example I gave.

I am still waiting for you to provide even one case from the loads you claim exist to say a simple contract is voidable after it has been completed.

 

[dilligaf]

i once went to coop bank to pay my mothers credit card for her she also had a current account with them and th bank refused to take cash to pay her credit card with

 

[MontyVeda]

Coop will pay a fraction of the card handling fees the small independents do. However, depending on the profit margins, it is still not always best business practice. For debit cards which often charge a fix rate rather than a %, it might be 30 or 40p. Means a bar of chocolate they may lose money. £5 is probably a bit high though.

I'm going back 15 years now... working in a small corner shop we had a 30p surcharge for card payments on purchases under £5 because the charge per payment from the vendor was 30p. This excluded tobacco because (according to the shop owner)... he only made about 30p profit on 20 ciggies and a lot of folk called in just for ciggies.

 

[RyanFrog]

I personally only use cash. I value anonymity and will walk out if cash is not an accepted form of payment.

 

[icowden]

I personally only use cash. I value anonymity and will walk out if cash is not an accepted form of payment.

Do you also not have a mobile phone and use a network of proxy servers to mask your identity when posting to internet social media platforms? How do you pay your bills without an online account? How do you avoid the CCTV in the shops and on the street? Do you also keep all your money under your mattress? How do you manage to get paid without keeping a bank account? Do you feel safe walking around with large quantities of cash if you need to make a higher value purchase?

 

[classic33]

Do you also not have a mobile phone and use a network of proxy servers to mask your identity when posting to internet social media platforms? How do you pay your bills without an online account? How do you avoid the CCTV in the shops and on the street? Do you also keep all your money under your mattress? How do you manage to get paid without keeping a bank account? Do you feel safe walking around with large quantities of cash if you need to make a higher value purchase?

Have done
Never used online banking, direct debit or standing orders are used.
Portable device carried warning of any WiFi cameras, mobile cameras.
No.
Never been bothered walking through a town or city with a large amount of cash.
Any transaction over £10,000, in cash, has further checks made. Money laundering requirements.

 

[figbat]

Portable device carried warning of any WiFi cameras, mobile cameras.

Some irony in carrying a tracking device in order to avoid being tracked.

 

[spen666]

I personally only use cash. I value anonymity and will walk out if cash is not an accepted form of payment.

presumably you never touch money with your hands to avoid leaving fingerprints or DNA on any of it to preserve your anonymity

 

[Adam4868]

I'm a cash person unless forced into using a card.Id more than likely avoid spending my money anywhere where it was card only.Id also much rather use my cash with a smaller business locally,I'm sure most of these don't want to pay a commission to the bank for every transaction.
Nothing to do with being tracked or traced for me...cash is king.

 

[albion]

Barrys Bargains in Consett has a minimum spend of £5 for none cash. Funding actual bargains is near impossible these days so spending £5 on out of date items is very hard.