Contracts and Terms and Conditions - Free Templates or Professional Sources
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| Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash |
To put this cooperation on a legally reliable basis, contracts and terms and conditions are used.
But where do you get these from and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different sources?
In this article, I present free and paid sources for legal documents and share my experiences.
Note:
As I am not a lawyer, the following statements are my personal opinion and my own experience. It is not legal advice. If you have specific questions or problems, you should contact a lawyer *.
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| Contracts and Terms and Conditions - Free Templates or Professional Sources |
Why Do You Need Contracts and Terms and Conditions?
In and of itself, a handshake is enough to start a business relationship and accept an offer.
But even if you get along well with most of the customers and there are no problems, there will be discrepancies at some point. Be it ambiguities about the scope of the work to be performed, later troubleshooting, or the like.
Anyone who becomes self-employed and takes on customer orders should therefore secure themselves in writing. Specially adapted contracts ensure security on both sides and therefore usually better business relationships.
Anyone who runs an online shop does not have to use any terms and conditions, but in many cases, it is advisable. The many special regulations and information and instruction obligations that are now necessary for online shops, in particular, make general terms and conditions more than sensible.
In addition, the BGB applies in the absence of general terms and conditions and this is then clear to the disadvantage of the seller.
When I started my own business, I got myself both contracts and general terms and conditions to be on the safe side with customer work right from the start. And that paid off.
Free Sources for Contracts and Terms and Conditions
There are numerous free template sources for contracts and terms and conditions on the web.
Here is just a small selection:
- On haerting.de you can find some contract templates, such as a web design contract. But also general terms and conditions templates for B2C and B2B shops can be downloaded here.
- The IHK Frankfurt am Main, for example, offers an extensive collection of links for sample contracts and standard terms and conditions on this page.
- At agb.de there is a general terms and conditions generator with which you can create your general terms and conditions step by step.
Here you can browse for a long time and get some suitable templates.
However, all of these providers point out that such standardized templates cannot replace legal advice. Particularly with the terms and conditions, but also with many contracts, the individual circumstances must be taken into account.
Therefore such a free template can and should only be the starting point. Coordination and adjustment with a lawyer are strongly recommended. Especially since you cannot be sure that such free templates are always up to date with the latest case law.
I used free templates when I started my business, but I had to work with a lawyer to adapt and update them.
Just Copy?
Anyone who comes up with the idea of simply going to their favorite online shop and copying the terms and conditions there and incorporating them into their shop is walking on thin ice.
Apart from the fact that the terms and conditions are also subject to copyright law, these are also adapted to the respective business model and individual circumstances. So you can't do this 1: 1 at all. In addition, there is no guarantee that these terms and conditions are 100% legally secure.
Chargeable Sources for Contracts and Terms and Conditions
Many online providers of legal templates have emerged in recent years.
These offer templates for a fee that are checked and up to date, at least according to the statements of the providers.
A distinction must be made between ready-made templates, such as those found at vorlagen.de or janolaw.de, for example.
There you will find a large selection of ready-made contracts and terms and conditions that are already tailored to specific areas. But there will probably be no avoiding minor adjustments there either.
In contrast, services such as yourxpert.de * or smartlaw.de rely on individual creation/adaptation.
To do this, you can either fall back on a creation service at a flat rate or answer questions step by step and thus come to the individually suitable document. In both cases, information about the business and the business model is required to precisely customize these documents.
That is certainly the next best thing to a direct conversation with a lawyer.
Free or Paid?
Whether you opt for the free or paid option or go directly to the lawyer, everyone has to decide for themselves.
There are certainly standardized cases in which free contract templates are sufficient. But in many more specific cases, and especially with terms and conditions, you should seek professional help. It would be very annoying if there was a lot of trouble and financial damage later, just because you wanted to save a few euros at the beginning.
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