4 ms·
IANAL, this is what I've heard, open to criticism: Legal tender in UK legally only affects repayment of debts: they are obliged to accept legal tender for repa
by veltas 2y ago
IANAL, this is what I've heard, open to criticism:
Legal tender in UK legally only affects repayment of debts: they are obliged to accept legal tender for repayment of a debt, within reason. So you can always pay by cash e.g. if you eat in a restaurant, legally, as you are indebted to them after eating your meal; although they don't need to make it easy, you'll have to have a day in court to enforce this in practice.
Nobody's obliged to offer goods for cash, so you have no obligations in a shop, unless they gave it to you on credit.
- PeterWhittaker 2y agoLikewise IANAL and this jives with my understanding: legal tender simply means that it cannot be refused in payment of a debt, e.g., to pay for fuel already pumped, a meal already eaten, a service already rendered. However, there is no obligation to take when paying ahead of time, e.g., when ordering at a takeout counter, or otherwise as part of the offer and acceptance process, which is how all over the counter retail sales are characterized for legal purposes. The only restrictions are on denominations, e.g., a business is not obligated to accept more than X coins of type T, etc.
- AndrewOMartin 2y agoIt can be refused, but you can't sue someone for non payment if they've offered to settle the debt with the right amount of legal tender. Pendantic, i know, but that's this whole thread. :)
- PeterWhittaker 2y agoAh! Thank you! That is a subtlety I had overlooked. Pedanticism (pedantry?) FTW. "One has no recourse should one refuse to accept cash in settlement of the debt", or something like that. :->