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Can a UK contract exclude liability for everything?
No. Under section 2 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, a person cannot exclude or restrict liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence, by any contract term or by notice. For other loss or damage, liability for negligence can only be excluded so far as the term satisfies the requirement of reasonableness. Some exclusions are void outright; the rest get tested.
Two different rules
- Death or personal injury from negligence. Cannot be excluded or restricted at all, by any contract term or by notice.
- Other loss or damage from negligence. Can be excluded only so far as the term satisfies the requirement of reasonableness.
Section 2 makes some exclusions void outright; the rest are tested for reasonableness rather than automatically allowed.
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Related questions
- Which exclusions are void outright?
- Section 2 states that liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence cannot be excluded or restricted at all, whether by a contract term or by a notice.
- What happens to exclusions for other kinds of loss?
- They are not automatically void. Section 2 allows them only so far as the term or notice satisfies the requirement of reasonableness.
What this answer does not cover
- Whether a particular clause satisfies the reasonableness requirement depends on the facts of the contract and is decided case by case. This page does not assess any specific clause.
- Contracts with consumers also engage the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which this page does not cover.