ivangr
Member
From what I remember of being taught about contract law many years ago, to be valid a contract MUST have three parts:
A invitation to treat (the offer from the vendor)
An acceptance of that invitation by the purchaser
An exchange of a consideration (normally the agreed purchase price paid by the purchaser in return for the goods or service as described by the vendor).
In the case of an order, then there is no completed contract until the full purchase price has been paid by the purchaser, and the goods or services have been delivered and found to have been as described. Paying the deposit for a vehicle does not count as being an exchange of a consideration, and the vendor is perfectly entitled to just refund the deposit in full and refuse to supply the vehicle.
I'm not a lawyer, though, and my instruction on contract law was solely in relation to procurement contracts associated with my work, with the intention of ensuring that us technical bods did not accidentally create a contract with a supplier.
this is totally true. in my industry we sometimes offer customers “free” additional services however we still charge them £1 for it to make sure it’s in a binding agreement and cannot be disputed.