Issues with website company

L

lop130371

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Hello

Back in 2021 we signed a contract with a UK website company to design and maintain our SME website. We signed the contract online via DocuSign. Because of various issues we moved to a different company, (an Irish web services company) early this year. The UK web company now is asking for a payment of 6 months of arrears since they claim that we should have given them 6 months notice as per the Terms and Conditions on the contract that we signed. The single contrat page that we signed and have available, however, contains various items like Initial Subscription Term (months from Handover Date) 36 , fees to pay, franchises etc. etc. but redirects to a web link for all the "Terms and Conditions". The original company has been acquired by a different company in 2022 which in turn has been acquired by a larger group in 2024. The link to the Terms and Conditions in the contract (signed with the original company is no longer available).

Do they have any grounds to this claim if the Terms and Conditions are not specified in the same PDF document, and redirected to an external web link which is no longer available (due to the UK company being taken over multiple times)?

Thanks
Chris
 
For something like this, you really need to consult a solicitor who can read all the terms and follow the links.

What were the "various issues"? If they did not meet the terms of their contract, then you can argue that the contract is void.

I am not a solicitor.
 
lop130371 said:
The link to the Terms and Conditions in the contract (signed with the original company is no longer available).
Click to expand...
The shared link might no longer be accessible, but you should ask this company to forward you a copy or make it available to you again. You should be able to validate the signature on that document from within Adobe Reader.

You should always download a local copy of such documents.
 
Thanks for the replies gents. I will follow up with our solicitor. Thanks again for sharing your views
 
It will come down to the terms and conditions you signed up to, which this company should be able to provide to you, as noted.

I can offer the perspective from the service providers standpoint, as I've worked in a few web services providers over the years: Client sets up a website, gets deal on hosting, design, payment processing etc, and is initially happy out. Years roll by and the client is either attached to a new deal somewhere else, or just not happy with current provider, and sets up a new deal. When the new website is ready, the website DNS record is pointed at the new provider, and the client is happy out, until the old provider sends in their regular invoice, unaware that the website DNS record no longer points at their hosted content. At this point, T&Cs become the point of contention.

Which is a long winded way of saying, how much notice, if any, did you give your old service provider? If none, then I would suggest that you will almost certainly see something in any version of the old T&Cs that specifies some time frame. 6 months seems a bit long, and may well be something the new company came up with since you signed, and thus not applicable to you. As mentioned above, you'll need to be persuaded by your signature on a document that links to the old T&Cs.
 
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