The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982
c 29
is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

that requires traders to provide services to a proper standard of workmanship ("''with reasonable care and skill''"). Furthermore, if a definite completion date or a price has not been fixed then the work must be completed within a reasonable time and for a reasonable charge. The Act was partially superseded by the

Consumer Rights Act 2015 The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidates existing consumer protection law legislation and also gives consumers a number of new rights and remedies. Provisions for secondary ticketing and ...

, insofar as that Act applies, i.e. between trader and consumers, for contracts entered into from 1 October 2015. The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 as amended remains in force in England, Wales, Northern Ireland; only Part IA of the Act, which creates provisions analogous to Part I of the Act, and Part III, which deals with the Act's commencement etc., apply in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Overview

Parts 1 and 1A (Scotland) relate to

goods In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not ...

. The Act applies to ''"relevant contracts for the transfer of goods"'', being those where one person agrees to transfer property in goods, i.e. ownership of the goods, to another person; the Act also applies to contracts for the hire of goods (sections 6 to 10A). The Act does not, however, apply to any ''"excepted contract"'', which includes sales of goods (covered by the

Sale of Goods Act 1979 The Sale of Goods Act 1979c 54 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulated English contract law and UK commercial law in respect of goods that are sold and bought. The Act consolidated the original Sale of Goods Act 1893 ...

, for trader to trader contracts, and the

, for trader to consumer contracts) and

Hire Purchase A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment (e.g., 40% of the total) and repaying the balance of the price of the asset pl ...

Agreements. When applicable, the Act implies terms into ''"relevant contracts for the transfer of goods"'' and ''"relevant contracts for the hire of goods"''. In summary, into ''"relevant contracts for the transfer of goods"'' the Act implies the following terms:

Title

Section 2 prescribes an

implied term A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual obligation, the breach of which may give rise to litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly and some terms carry less legal gravity as th ...

regarding

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

(i.e. a legal right to transfer the property) and various implied

warranties In contract law, a warranty is a promise which is not a condition of the contract or an innominate term: (1) it is a term "not going to the root of the contract",Hogg M. (2011). ''Promises and Contract Law: Comparative Perspectives''p. 48 Cambrid ...

. * The transferor must have the right to transfer the property in the goods, i.e. ownership unencumbered by any security, at the relevant time under the contract when transfer must be made. * This applies unless the contract or the circumstances imply only the rights the transferor possess at the relevant time are due to be transferred; however it is also implied that the difference between unencumbered ownership and what is actually being transferred has been disclosed to the receiver.

Description

*If the transferor has agreed to transfer the property in the goods by description, it is implied that the goods will match the description.

Reasonableness

If the seller knows from the buyer the particular purpose for which the goods are being acquired, sections 4(4) and 4(5) create an implied term that "the goods supplied under the contract are reasonably fit for that purpose". The Act also states that a reasonable time (section 14(2)) and a reasonable charge (section 15(2)) are "questions of fact", but it does not explain how the "fact of reasonableness" is to be determined. However, the

Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977c 50 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates contracts by restricting the operation and legality of some contract terms. It extends to nearly all forms of contract and one of its most im ...

and its concomitant case law provided a number of guidelines.

Case law

Trebor Bassett Holdings Ltd v ADT Fire and Security, 2012, involved a contract for ADT to "the design, supply, install and commission a fire detection and suppression system for a popcorn factory" in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

owned and operated by Trebor Bassett and

Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mar ...

. There was a fire in June 2005 which the installed system failed to extinguish. The Court held that ADT were asked to design a system to meet Bassett's specific

fire safety Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the development and eff ...

requirements and therefore they were providing a service, for which there was a requirement to take reasonabe care, but the design and supply of such a system did not constitute a "supply of goods" for the purpose of Part 1 of the Act. The section 4 requirement that "the goods supplied under the contract are reasonably fit for that purpose" was therefore not invoked by this contract.England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
Trebor Bassett Holdings Ltd & Anor v ADT Fire and Security Plc

012 012 may refer to: * Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car * The dialing code for Pretoria, South Africa See also * 12 (disambiguation) Twelve or 12 may refer to: * 12 (number) * December, the twelfth and final month of the year Years * 12 BC ...

EWCA Civ 1158, delivered 23 August 2012, accessed 24 December 2021

References

External links

Text of the UK Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (as amended)
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1982 {{UK-statute-stub