Before you sign for next season, read the organiser’s contract

The vans are washed down, the diary’s gone quiet, and the application packs for next season have started landing in your inbox. Shows, festivals, food markets, the odd race meeting if you’re lucky.

You know the drill. Fill in the form, upload your hygiene rating and insurance, pay the pitch fee, tick the box that says you’ve read the terms and conditions.  Have you, though? Properly?

Most traders I speak to check the pitch size and the build-up times, and that’s about it. I get it. But that document decides what happens to your money if the event’s called off, and who picks up the bill if someone gets hurt. It deserves more than a skim, and the quiet months are the only time most of you have the headspace to read it.

You’re signing as a business

We’ve written a lot this year about your own terms and conditions, the ones you give your customers. This month I want to flip it round, because when an organiser sends you their terms, you’re the customer.  Except legally, you’re not. Not in the way you might think.

When you buy a sofa or book a holiday, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 protects you from unfair terms. When you book a pitch, you’re buying as a business, so that Act doesn’t help you. What’s left is the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, which only covers certain types of clauses, mainly ones where the organiser limits or excludes its own liability. Even then, the courts generally take the view that businesses can read and should be held to what they sign.

In short, if you’ve agreed to it, you’ll usually be stuck with it.

Ticking the box counts

Something a lot of traders miss is that many application forms say that by submitting the form, or paying a deposit, you’ve accepted the organiser’s terms. Not when they confirm your pitch. When you press send.

So read the terms first. If something worries you, email the organiser before you apply and keep their reply. You’d be surprised how often an organiser will tweak a clause for a trader they want back. Even if they won’t, a written explanation of how they apply a clause in practice could be very useful later on.

The clauses that come back to bite

All organisers’ terms are different, but it’s usually the same few clauses that cause the trouble.

When the event’s cancelled.  Say you pay a £600 pitch fee in January for a three-day show in July. You order stock, book staff, and turn down a private wedding that weekend because you’re committed. Two days before, the ground’s waterlogged and the show’s off. You dig out the terms, and the pitch fee is non-refundable ‘in all circumstances’.

There’s no general rule in English law that gets your money back because the weather ruined an event. If the contract covers cancellation, that wording will usually decide it. So, check what happens if the event’s cancelled, cut short or postponed, and whether a ‘refund’ is really just a credit towards next year’s date (which you may not be free for).

Indemnities and your insurance

An indemnity is a promise to cover someone else’s losses. Lots of pitch agreements ask you to indemnify the organiser against any claim ‘arising from’ your being there. Depending on the wording, that can stretch to things you had nothing to do with.

Here’s the bit people miss. Many public liability policies exclude liability you’ve taken on under a contract over and above what you’d have been liable for anyway. You could sign up to an indemnity your insurer won’t touch. You could send the clause to your broker and ask them to confirm in writing that you’re covered.

While you’re at it, check the level of cover the organiser wants. £5 million or £10 million is common, and some ask to be named on your policy. If your certificate doesn’t match, you could be turned away or have the pitch declined.

Commission and cashless payments

If the organiser takes a percentage, find out how turnovers worked out, whether it’s before or after VAT, and what records they can ask to see.

Cashless events are worth a closer look. The organiser often holds your takings and pays you afterwards, so check how long they’ve got to pay. If an organiser goes bust while holding your money, you’re likely to be an unsecured creditor, which in practice can mean getting back very little.

Pitch, menu and power

Can they move your pitch? If you’ve been promised you’re the only wood-fired pizza on site, is that in the contract or just in an email from someone who’s since left? And if their generator fails halfway through the lunchtime rush, who pays for the stock you’ve lost?

If you have to pull out

Vans break down. People get ill. Check what you lose if you cancel, and how close to the date. Some terms keep the full fee and add a charge on top. Others say you won’t be offered a pitch again. Far better to know that now than in June.

Use the quiet months

Come March, with deadlines closing and the season nearly on you, you’ll sign whatever lands. Right now, you’ve got time to read, ask questions and, if you need to, decide an event isn’t worth the risk, however good the footfall looks.

One more tip – keep every agreement you sign in one folder, along with any emails from the organiser. If something goes wrong in August, you’ll want to find it quickly, and August is not the month you want to be digging through your inbox.

Worth asking yourself before you sign the next pitch agreement

Do you actually know what happens to your fee if the organiser cancels the event? If you’re not sure, that’s a five-minute question worth asking before you sign, not after.

Not sure where to start?

That’s exactly what the free consultation is for. As an NCASS member, you’re entitled to a free 30-minute legal telephone consultation with us, no obligation, just a straightforward conversation about where your business is exposed and what would actually help.

Get in touch and let’s make sure you’re ready before you need to be.

📨 [email protected]

Or call your nearest office:

☎ 0118 321 4188 (Berkshire & Home Counties)

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