One Sided Contract ...

[Iggle Piggle]

After giving my final response on an issue can I send a company a letter saying any further communication will be deemed acceptance of a charge of £xx for each letter thereafter?
Would this satisfy law of contract, what do you guys think?

[Jackdaw33]

No. You can send a letter in those terms but the law on unilateral contracts is very restricted.

[Buenchico]

You might find it hard to win a case before a civil court (seeking an order for payment to be made in respect of the writing of such letters if none was to be forthcoming otherwise) but, unlike Jackdaw33, I think that there's at least a chance that you might be able to do so.

The key word that you need to include within your letter is "offer". It has a particular legal status, which might be enough to swing things in your favour.

e.g:
"Sirs,

Take notice that I regard our correspondence with regard to the matter of xyz as at an end and that I will NOT reply to any further communications from your company other than as per my OFFER below:

OFFER:
I hereby OFFER to provide a response to any further communications you may send to me, in regard to the matter of xyz, for a fee of THIRTY POUNDS PER HOUR OR PART THEREOF for each such response sent by me and subject to the CONDITION that such payment is received by me within ONE CALENDAR MONTH of providing such a response.

TAKE NOTICE that the receipt by me of any further communications from your company, with regard to the matter of xyz, shall be deemed an ACCEPTANCE of the said OFFER.

Yours . . . "

[Iggle Piggle]

Thank you both, I knew it would be a moot point and I kind of predicted an argument both ways ! I'll let you know how I get on...

[Peter Pedant]

you can certainly try it

but it isnt a contract as we know it

from around 1755 ( yup 300 y ago ) Ld Mansfield specified the bits of a contract to be offer, acceptance and " consideration" which is value/money moving in the opposite direction

and your littel idea - scores zero out of three

that doesnt not mean that if it come to the snall claims court a judge wont find in your favour.... ( this has occurred )

I tried this with the awful British Gas whose awful do-nothing CEO is one Sam Galbraith who pays himself an incredible amount of moolah and all it did was muddy the waters. ( I paid £600 for a bill of £117.89 which I got back eventually after a bitterly contested struggle. The struggle was about Mr Galbraith wanting very much to keep the £600 in his tighly grasped hot little hand)

[Peter Pedant]

the small claim I was thinking of was a bank who had charged ££25 for a letter and the judge accepted that it was fair that the meritorious customer could also do so

small claim - not a court of rrecord of course

[Buenchico]

PP:
My suggested letter clearly makes an offer, it specifies the consideration relevant to that offer and it lays down the conditions which shall constitute acceptance of that offer. Performance of such conditions might well therefore be viewed as such acceptance. (See Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] and also the multitude of cases referring to such things as the acceptance of clearly-indicated parking charges by using a private car park).

[Peter Pedant]

um Chico no
Carlill V Carbolic smoke ball is an example of an offer to the world which is accepted by Mrs Carlill by buyng a smokeball

This is a completely didfferent category and is not an offer to the world for a start

[Buenchico]

Lawyers for the Carbolic Smoke Ball Co actually tried to argue that an 'offer to the world' couldn't constitute a legal contract but the court ruled that it was just as valid as an offer to an individual (or to a specified group of individuals), so the court's final ruling was made upon the basis that there's no difference between an offer to the world and an offer to an individual. Therefore I suggest that the case is still relevant. (Even if it's not, the case law which allows parking companies to pursue charges for parking, on the basis that one party has accepted the offer made by another solely through complying with the terms of an offer made by them, would still seem to apply).

[Jackdaw33]

Ah, Carlill v Carbolic. That takes me back. Almost as good as Mrs Donovan and the dead snail in her ginger beer.

[dzug2]

.the case law which allows parking companies to pursue charges for parking.

but it would appear that the parking companies lose many such cases if they land up in court, or don't pursue them if the customer jibs

.TAKE NOTICE that the receipt by me of any further communications from your company, with regard to the matter of xyz, shall be deemed an ACCEPTANCE of the said OFFER.

What if the further communication is a letter declining said offer?

[Iggle Piggle]

I guess that is the route they would take ...