The Common Law on Property – Offer and Acceptance

Introduction

Purchasing a property can be a part of personal enjoyment or investments. Individuals who are engaged in buying, selling, leasing, or renting real property should understand the laws that governed them. It is important to distinguish the large world of property law, to make his or her transactions advantageous. In common law, there are three elements in creating a contract, the offer and acceptance, consideration and an intention to create legal relations (Ehsan, 208).

Offer and Acceptance

Perhaps the most important feature of a contract is that one party makes an offer for a bargain that another accepts. This can be called a 'concurrence of wills' or a 'meeting of the minds' of two or more parties. There must be evidence that the parties had each from an objective perspective engaged in conduct manifesting their assent, and a contract will be formed when the parties have met such a requirement. An objective perspective means that it is only necessary that somebody gives the impression of offering or accepting contractual terms in the eyes of a reasonable person, not that they actually did want to contract. Offer and acceptance does not always need to be expressed orally or in writing (Atkinson, 2007).

Q: Did the sales of the property by Emily amount to a withdrawal?

No. From the beginning, the sales of property did not give specification to the person who is willing to buy it, but instead she gave a time for her contracted parties to think before accepting the offer. When she finally receives the acceptance of Lindsay, it is clearly indicated that she accepted the sales even though David is planning to bring it to the court. The point is, David is the last person Emily contacted and before David makes any decision to buy the property, Emily and Lindsay has already agreed about the property once the acceptance is made.

Q: Was the offer to sell withdrawn before acceptance?

No. It is indicated that Emily is waiting for the response of the people she contracted. She also gave specific time where they can accept her offer. It only means that in the duration of the time she given for them, the acceptance is still open for those individuals who are willing to purchase the property.

Q: Was the communication by the 3rd party effective in withdrawing the offer?

No. At first Emily applied the rule against perpetuities that encourages free transfer of property by limiting the period of time a property owner can delay a change of ownership. This rule states that any grant of interest in real property in the future must take effect, if at all, within the period of the life or lives of beneficiaries living at the time of the grant, plus 21 years (Atkinson, 2007).

Q: Is Jerome’s oral contract enforceable?

Although the oral contract is another way of accepting the offer, it is not always advised to make it in a formal arrangement. The oral contract is just an agreement between Emily and Jerome. Since, according to their communication, he will consider buying the house if and only if Emily will make any communication with him.

Q: Did Emily’s silence amount to an acceptance?

Yes. Since the rule in different jurisdictions varies under statutory enactments as to the form of an acceptance, it becomes a matter of some importance to ascertain what law governs the contract of acceptance. The general rule would be that the law of the place where the acceptance was to be made would determine the sufficiency of the acceptance. This would be the place where the bill is made payable. If the bill be accepted where payable the contract is governed by the law of that place; but if a bill be drawn in one place payable at another place and be accepted in the former place, it has been held that the acceptance is governed by the law of the former place. The acceptance of Emily is already made even though there are many parties that concerned in buying the property.

Q: Did Lindsay make a valid acceptance when she posted the letter of acceptance?

Yes. In the selling of property, there is an existence of unilateral contract. It happens when an offer is made to the whole world and acceptance comes from a particular people upon their fulfillment of the contractual terms or the condition precedent. The general rule is that in "case of doubt, an offer is interpreted as inviting the offeree to accept either by promising to perform what the offer requests or by rendering the performance, as the offeree chooses (Ehsan, 2008).

Works Cited:

Atkinson, L., (2007) Property Law [Online] Available at: http://www.ohiobar.org/General%20Resources/Law_and_You_08.pdf [Accessed 27 Nov 2009].

Ehsan, Z., (2008) Practical Concepts in Contract Law [Online] Available at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10077/1/MPRA_paper_10077.pdf [Accessed 27 Nov 2009].