DIYbanter - View Single Post - Are these normal issues with contractor's agreement?

wrote:

"It has to be 'reasonable' or its not enforceable. Most people
dont know that and get roped into rip off deals by business
and government all the time... the fact that you signed does
not mean you have to pay if payment puts you into an unviable,
(not survivable or undue damaging position) therefore
unreasonable situation. "

This is one of the dumbest things I ever heard. So, you're saying if I
sign a contract to buy a boat for $200k, agreeing to make payments, and
then say, "It wasn't reasonable, If I have to continue to make payments
on it, then I'll have to sell my house and won't have enought money to
eat" , a court is gonna say, OK, no problem, it just wasn't a
reasonable contract, it's invalid, you're off the hook?

If that were the case, people would be bailing on all kinds of
contracts for all kinds of BS reasons. The court isn't there to go
back and decide how fair or reasonable the contract was. That was up
to the parties that entered into it. As someone else pointed out, as
long as it meets the important tests listed and doesn't violate law,
then it's going to be held valid. Getting a bad deal by signing a bad
contract doesn't mean a court is going to undo it and let you walk.

It's known as an "Unconscionable Contract" and there are provisions
under which a contract may be deemed unenforceable owing to such
provisions. However, in order to meet such a criterion, the abuse has
to be extreme and simply a higher than market value in and of itself
would be unlikely unless it were truly and extreme case. In general, it
would require some sort of deceit or other heinous action on the part of
one party to create such a condition. That somebody agreed to pay $200k
or a boat that might only be worth $150k or so would be very unlikely to
elicit such a reaction unless there could be shown a willful
misrepresentation on the part of the seller. Simply the excuse of not
being able to afford the payments would not be sufficient, certainly.

Here's a summary of the general provisions typical...

"Unconscionable contracts are so unfair to one party that the contract
becomes unenforceable, usually with respect to consumers induced to sign
contracts via high pressure sales techniques or who misunderstood the
requirements and conditions. Such contracts hide procedurally unfair
terms in the fine print, contain exorbitant price or limit buyer's
remedy (waiver of buyer's defenses, prohibiting buyer's recovery in case
of product defects, limiting remedies to useless options, giving a
seller the right to reposess items sold on credit regardless of payoffs
on some of them)."

http://www.paradfirm.com/contracts.html