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12 September 2019 / Rob Jones , Jenny Young , Matthew Fox
Issue: 7855 / Categories: Features , Commercial
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Auto-renewing contracts: stuck in the middle

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Rob Jones, Jenny Young & Matthew Fox report on the dangers of auto-renewing contracts for medium & large businesses
  • The traps presented by auto-renewing contracts, and how to avoid them.

Auto-renewing contracts—otherwise known as rolling contracts—are contracts which automatically renew after an initial fixed period. The exact terms will vary from contract to contract. Typically, they state that if notice to terminate is not given in a specified period of time, and in a particular way, then the contract will automatically renew.

As a result, if the signing party fails to hand in their notice in line with the terms of the contract, they may find that they have unintentionally entered into a renewed contract even though they did not provide their explicit consent.

Some consider these types of contracts to be convenient as they enable services to continue uninterrupted without the need to renew. However, for others who want to switch to a cheaper or better provider, it will be an unpleasant surprise to discover that they are

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