Bottomley: Solving the Looming Developer Liability Problem

It's defined in the "Blue Book" or something like that. That was pointed to in a earlier re-run of this saga.

Basically it's something like "making an open offer to treat", another bit of legalese. But that's effectively putting up a shop window, with a load of products, WITH PRICE TAGS, and saying to the world and his wife "come in, look around, and if you want to give me what I'm asking for we have a deal".

This is VERY different from shoving a load of products on a table at the end of your driveway, and sticking up a sign that says "help yourself. When they're gone they're gone".

The first is a contract - there is a two-way exchange of benefit between the parties to the contract. The second may well be to the benefit of the giver, but there is no guarantee of any benefit and the benefit may not come from the recipient.

All this nasty legalese is simply to prevent people disguising the first version as the second, with the intent of avoiding responsibility or benefiting unfairly.

(And where you are doing contract work for someone, you make them an "offer to treat" - pay you a decent wage for your work - and then you have a contract where you tell them either they guarantee your work, or if they want to offload liability onto you, they have to pay the insurance premium as part of your invoice. The "open offer" simply means anyone can walk in off the street and accept what's on the table, whereas an "offer" can be "please negotiate".)

Cheers,
Wol