NABO's concerns at CaRT's proposed new Terms and Conditions
THE National Association of Boat Owners (NABO) is extremely concerned at the Canal & River Trust's proposed new Terms & Conditions for licensing.
In NABO's three replies to CaRT (a link below) it expresses its concerns, finding many shortcomings that are a mix of bad presentation, hard to read wording, lack of clarity and non-compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations. Lack of clarity is in itself a non-compliance.
Express its concerns
As a result of this, NABO has written to CaRT to share its findings and express its concerns, it pointing out it is immediately apparent that the documents have been written at different times, and by authors with different skills.
As a result, the package does not interconnect and important links are not made. The documents are not all identified and dated. It is apparent that the Trust has in the past made changes to the documents without reference to ongoing licence periods. Because previous versions are not available, users cannot see what was agreed at the time of purchase of their licence. This undermines the licence relationship.
Concerns about readability
In its submission to the Trust, NABO writes:
'We are concerned about the wording of the documents provided by the Trust to define the boat licence agreement, specifically the General Terms and Conditions, the Privacy Policy and the Privacy Schedule for Customers.
In 2015, we drew the Trust’s attention to the readability of the Terms document. We said: 'The actual Terms and Conditions should be written in words that users can understand, otherwise it is an unfair contract and self-defeating.
It was not the first time that we have drawn the Trust’s attention to the matter. In 2015, the Trust chose to take no action over our complaint. NABO believes that no organisation should create a fog of complicated documents written by lawyers, which customers cannot understand.'
There are many areas in the consultation that cause concern to the Association and it believes that boaters should not be required to agree to terms that are not enforceable in law, as is clearly shown.
No warning of consultation
As to the actual consultation, the Association points out:
Taking the consultation as a whole we find it extremely user unfriendly. It is estimated to take 40 minutes but there is no capacity to save your comments once you have started, so many prospective respondents will have no doubt exited the consultation and their views have not been recorded.
Details of the consultation were not even on CaRT’s website nearly two months after it was launched and three weeks before it closed.
In 2015 we drew the Trust’s attention to the readability of the Terms and Conditions. We said: 'The actual Terms and Conditions should be written in words that users can understand, otherwise it is an unfair contract and self-defeating.'
A fog of complicated contract documents
Since 2015 time has moved on and public opinion is now only too aware of organisations that create a fog of complicated contract documents written by lawyers in a way that most customers cannot understand. The existing and revised Terms and Conditions have much higher Flesch Ease of Reading and Understanding scores than is recommended. This could invariably lead to many of those at risk of any enforcement action as a result of non-compliance, being unable to understand the terms that they have been required to sign.
The LINK to NABO's concerns. Time is slipping away for more responses to the survey to reach CaRT as the consultation ends on the 20th December. Make your feelings known.