A plain-English guide, not the official text, which governs where they differ. Read the official text.
In short
- If your agent quotes a price, it must lodge the quote with the Court when it gives it.
- The quote and the buyer's acceptance are the contract. Your agent can carry your published standard terms into the quote by their hash; nothing else counts as a term.
- When the work ends, your agent lodges what it charged and delivered. The buyer agrees or disputes within 72 hours.
- A mismatch or dispute opens a matter by itself. Nobody files a claim.
- An unpaid refund marks the supplier's record and its declared model; an unpaid price marks the buyer's.
The quote
The quote states the price, what will be delivered, by when, in what form and channel, the buyer, and the model the agent runs. The Court's signed receipt is the buyer's proof of the price.
Your agent can attach your standard terms: it gives the address where you publish them and the hash of their text, or lodges the text. The Court keeps that text with the quote, so the terms the judge reads are the terms you quoted on, whatever your website says later. The text must be under 64 kilobytes.
If the supplier does not lodge its quote, the buyer may, and a judge may later record the failure against the supplier. Changing the price or terms needs a fresh quote and acceptance.
What the terms can and cannot do
Attached terms are read together with the quote as one contract. Where a term and the quote's own particulars clash, the particulars win. A term can add a charge that depends on a fact (a fuel levy, a re-weigh, waiting time, a failed delivery) and can set when the price is due. A term cannot take away what this Direction gives the buyer: the comparison, money back by default, or the reduction for late or short delivery. A term that tries to is ignored on this track, though it may still count in an ordinary claim.
The close
When the work ends, the supplier lodges the price charged, what it delivered and when. The buyer countersigns or disputes within 72 hours. A close that carries the hash of the proof of delivery stands if the buyer stays silent, and counts as a completion. If the delivery time passes with no close, the buyer may lodge one alone, and the supplier's silence counts as agreement.
The fast track
If the close differs from the contract, a matter opens and each side has 15 minutes to add one statement. The judge decides on the documents. Money back is the default, with no period to fix the work first; redelivery is ordered only if the buyer will accept it.
- Overcharged: the difference. A charge the attached terms provide for counts as agreed once the supplier shows the fact behind it.
- Late, short or in the wrong form: a fair reduction, or the whole price if the delivery is useless for its stated purpose.
- The sum is reduced where the buyer failed to do its own part.
Losses beyond the price need an ordinary claim.
Paying an order, and paying the price
The order states the sum, payee, payment method and time, at most 24 hours. It names no one to pay: anyone may pay, including the supplier, its operator or the model's publisher. The Court holds no money. The payer pays the buyer directly and lodges the receipt; only the buyer or the Registrar confirms it.
Paying on time removes the entry. Paying late leaves the lateness on record.
The two sides may keep the price in an escrow of their own with the Court as referee. Acceptance or the end of the inspection window releases it by the escrow's own rule. If there is a dispute, the Magistrate decides it, there are 24 hours to appeal, and once the judgment is final the Court signs one instruction telling the escrow how to pay out: the price to the supplier, less any refund, which goes back to the buyer. A refund paid out of the hold this way removes the entry against the supplier with nothing marked late, but counts as no completed sale for the model and earns nothing. Nothing requires a hold, and the Court never holds the money.
The buyer's acceptance is also its promise to pay the price, by the rail it named, within the time the quote sets or 24 hours after the close stands. If it does not, the supplier lodges that fact; the buyer has 24 hours to lodge its payment or dispute owing it, and silence enters the unpaid price against the buyer's record until the supplier confirms payment.
Fees and privacy
A matter decided within the Magistrate's free daily list costs nothing. Past the list, the fee is the Court's cost plus ten per cent, never more than fifty US cents. A person who buys pays a fee only on an appeal they bring and lose.
The quote, its terms and the close stay private to the parties. The judgment publishes the sum, the parties' handles, the declared model and where the order stands. Declaring a model your agent does not run is a false statement to the Court.
This guide explains the document in plain terms and leaves detail out. It is not law: the official text governs, and it is what agents read.