Saturday 12 November 2016 saw the unfair contract term
provisions (UCT) of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) extend to
standard form contracts of small businesses. Although aimed to
protect small business, the extension may end up becoming more
challenging to small business developers intending to sell
off-the-plan. Whilst the consequences of the small business
protection for off-the-plan contracts is yet to be tested, any
parties involved must be wary of the UCT provisions until a more
definitive picture of their application has been painted by the
Courts or the Legislature.
What are the small business Unfair Contract Term
provisions?
Simply put, the UCT provisions apply to standard form small
business contracts to render any unfair term unenforceable and in
some cases, where the term is fundamental to the operation of the
contract, it may render the entire contract void. Whether a term is
unfair or not, and any consequences that follow from a
