Contracts - Termination clauses

[Miss Pitstop]

To cut a very long story short, my company (company X) are being asked to sign a contract with Company Y where the termination clauses only refer to how company Y can terminate the contract with Company X. There is no mention of how we can terminate the contract should we wish to.

When asked for clarification, they have stating there is no termination clause for us as they need to ensure there customers get a consistent service

My gut feeling says this isn't legal but can any of you brains out there help? I am against the clock as this contract is either signed, or not signed by midnight on Friday - there is no opportunity to stall it, much as I want that to happen.

Can you please keep it to legal advice, not opinion please. I need to fire back at them with facts!!!

Many thanks

Sarah

[Marcellus]

Contract law doesn't actually require there to be any termination clauses by either party iirc.

Whether their actions would fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms Acts is debateable.

[JustinP1]

That would technically be lawful as long as the contract is for a fixed term.

Some more background would be useful though to understand the context

[therealpigdog]

Nothing illegal about it - you would be able to terminate upon material breach by the other party (subject to what the contract says).

Often used where one party (A) is putting investment (financial/time/expertise) into something and doesn't want the other to terminate early but where it may be damaging to A's reputation if B does not perform satisfactorily. Although this can de dealt with by way of breach of contract, it's a pain in the backside to hire lawyers and go to court to prove breach, so easier to put a clause in the agreement.

At the end of the day no-one is forcing you to sign - although obviously it's prefereable to try to get some sort of termination clause in for your company to benefit from. You need to view the contract as a whole, and consider the commercial implications. That's why it's difficult to give concrete advice on a forum.

[Miss Pitstop]

Thanks guys - I appreciate I am being fairly vague so just wanted a pointer in the right direction, which you have given.

It's essentially a large company trying to screw over lots of little ones by corporate bullying. It's being challenged legally elsewhere and we have taken the decision not to sign up to it.

That's probably as much as I can say, but thank you.

[ewenm]

We had the same problem with a contract with IBM. They refused to put in a termination clause for my company so we refused to sign for anything longer than 3 months and renegotiated at the end of each period. That just meant that if IBM started messing around (as an ex-IBM employee, I know they are adept at messing around) we only had to put up with it for a limited period.