Varying contracts

Journal article

MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd. v Rock Advertising Ltd. [2016] EWCA Civ 553 deals with a number of important issues concerning variation of contracts. Rock occupied as licensee premises managed by MWB. In August 2011, Rock decided to expand its business, and entered into a written agreement with MWB for larger premises for 12 months beginning 1 November 2011. The licence fee was agreed to be £3,500 per month for the first three months, and then £4,433.34 from 1 February 2012. Unfortunately, Rock’s business was not as successful as hoped, and by late February 2012 had incurred arrears of over £12,000. MWB purported to terminate the agreement and sued Rock for the arrears. Rock argued that MWB had orally agreed to re-schedule the licence fee payments due from February to October 2012: Rock would pay less than the originally agreed amount for the first few months, but after that would pay more, with the result that the arrears would be cleared by the end of the year. Pursuant to this agreement, Rock paid £3,500 to MWB, which was the first instalment due in accordance with the revised payment schedule.

Authors: Davies, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Cambridge Law Journal
• Volume: 75
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 455-458
• Publication date: 2016-11-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-09-05
• DOI: 10.1017/S0008197316000702
• ISSN: 1469-2139