We provide the complete commercial debt recovery service; from outsourced early arrears collections through to expert litigation, all handled in-house by a multi-award-winning law firm.

 

Visit our debt recovery website

Download your free heads of terms template and guidance for commercial contracts*

Heads of terms provide a useful point of reference to both parties, but should not be confused with the main contract.

While you will ultimately wish to negotiate and agree on the written terms for your main contract as soon as possible, there are a few reasons why reaching agreement can be helpful with your negotiations. Agreeing heads of terms can:

  • provide a useful point of reference to both parties;
  • help to focus the parties on what terms need to be agreed;
  • show the parties’ commitment to going ahead with the deal; and
  • reduce the legal costs of drafting the contract by ensuring that terms have been fully negotiated and recorded.

There have been cases where the courts have found parties to be in a legally binding contractual relationship despite only having agreed heads of terms. This was due to the parties having already started performing the terms of their main contract before written terms for the main contract had been agreed. The lesson to be learnt from this is to keep any agreed heads of terms under review, particularly if your contract negotiations are likely to be lengthy. You should also aim to conclude written terms for your main contract as soon as possible and do not be tempted to start performing the main contract until the terms of the main agreement have been agreed.

Heads of terms template & guidance

If you do not use heads of terms, or you are thinking of revising your current heads of terms document, you can download our free heads of terms template and guidance.

Our heads of terms template will provide you with key provisions to consider when agreeing to heads of terms.

Heads of terms are not generally written to be legally binding on the parties, and our heads of terms template is no different. However, it does contain a binding duty of confidentiality.

* Please note – this heads of terms template and guidance is suitable for commercial contracts/arrangements only and not for transaction activity, such as buying or selling companies, businesses or properties.

If you would like to discuss how to use the heads of terms template, please Book a 30-minute FREE Consult with Partner & Head of Commercial, Haroon Younis.

Loading

Loading
Icon

Scroll to next section

Scroll back to the top

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

For more information on how these cookies work, please refer to our Cookies Policy.

Strictly necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our website. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous.

Force24 cookies & tracking

This website utilises Force24’s marketing automation platform. Force24 cookies are first-party cookies and are enabled at the point of cookie acceptance on this website. The cookies are named below:

F24_autoID
F24_personID

They allow us to understand our audience engagement thus allowing better optimisation of marketing activity.