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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Sale of goods - Formation of contract - Conditions and warranties

132: Conditions and warranties

You could also call this:

“Rules in buying agreements: Important ones and less important ones”

When you buy something, the agreement you make with the seller has rules. Some of these rules are very important and are called conditions. If the seller breaks a condition, you might be able to cancel the whole agreement.

Other rules in the agreement are called warranties. If the seller breaks a warranty, you can ask for money to make up for it, but you can’t cancel the agreement.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a rule is a condition or a warranty. You have to look carefully at the whole agreement to figure it out.

Even if the agreement calls a rule a warranty, it might actually be a condition. So the name given to the rule in the agreement doesn’t always decide what it really is.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844323.

Topics:
Business > Fair trading Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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131: Stipulations about time, or

"Time limits in contracts are not always strict unless specified"

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133: Breach of condition to be fulfilled by seller, or

"What happens when a seller breaks a promise in a sale"

Part 3 Sale of goods
Formation of contract: Conditions and warranties

132Conditions and warranties

  1. A breach of a condition in a contract of sale may give rise to a right to treat the contract as repudiated.

  2. A breach of a warranty in a contract of sale may give rise to a claim for damages but not to a right to reject the goods and treat the contract as repudiated.

  3. Whether a stipulation in a contract of sale is a condition or a warranty depends in each case on the construction of the contract.

  4. A stipulation in a contract of sale may be a condition even if it is called a warranty in the contract.

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