CONTRACT LAW.

Contract Law.

Contract Law

The law of contract is a set of rules governing the relationship, content and validity of an agreement between two or more persons (individuals, companies or other institution) regarding the sale of goods, provision of services or exchange of interests or ownership. While this is a wide definition it does not cover the full ambit of situations in which contract law will apply. The reason for this is due to the vast number of examples in which contracts can arise in everyday life.

Contract law has been more formally defined as a promise or set of promises which the law will enforce. Another definition and a somewhat competing view, is that a contract is an agreement giving rise to obligations which are enforced or recognized by law. For example if I say that I want to sell this orange for £1.00 but then mistakenly advertise it for 1p, and that offer is accepted, then a valid agreement will be upheld. Simply because there was a mistake in the offer, it does not invalidate the contract. I had the intention to sell on the part of the offeree. It is important to distinguish at this point however between an offer and an “invitation to treat”.

I saw a camper van on e-bay and consequently made an offer via phone on it which was accpeted. The contract was formed I then transferrred a deposit of 400 pounds to the seller's bank account. A few days later he said that the funds were not in his account and that the auction would go ahead. It did and the buyer paid more than we had agreed to pay. The next day the seller contacted us to say that the seller had pulled out and that we could have the van but at a higher price now. We agreed and travelled from Sussex to North Wales to pick it up. It turned out to be unfit for purpose (mould growing inside the vehicle by the driver's feet, electrics that didn't work, bodywork badly patched up) none of this had been mentioned in the advert or on the phone. We decided not to buy and the seller returned 80 punds saying it was all he had and that he would lose money on the vehicle as we had messed him around. We agreed that he should return at least 200 punds. He promised to readvertise ...