REH lesson notes
Misrepresentation
* This means that the seller has not given a true and accurate description of the goods or services to the buyer * This may have been done innocently, such as an instance where the seller says something false but believes it to be true * It may have been done negligently, such as where the seller couldn’t be bothered to check whether what he was saying was true or not * It may have been done fraudulently- a deliberate lie
Mistake
* You may believe you are signing for one thing when in fact you are signing for something else. You are normally expected to read contracts you have been given and if you fail to do so you cannot get out of the contract at a later date. However, when you have been duped into doing this, perhaps one sheet of paper was deliberately hiding the contents when you signed it, the contracts would be void. * There may be a mistake about the identity of what you are buying. Jo intended to buy a landline phone and pete intended to sell him a mobile phone. Here no contract was made * You may make a mistake in understanding what the other part is telling you when they describe the product or obligation which go with it, whether in writing or verbally. The law expect businesses and people to take care when they enter into contracts and will not normally let them escape from one simply because they didn’t read it properly or listen when it was explained.
Duress and undue influences * Duress is where someone is forced to do something because they are being threatened with personal injury, unlawful imprisonment or even death. A threat to someone’s property is insufficient for a claim of duress any contract made under duress is unenforceable in law. * In certain relationships, one party is able to take unfair advantage of the other due to the nature of the relationship. This could happen in a parent/ child relationship, between a solicitor and a client or between a trustee and a beneficiary, for example, where someone has been left money in a will9the beneficiary0 but can’t get it until they reach a certain age and the trustee looks after the money till the beneficiary comes of age. * In such relationships, the stronger party can exert pressure on the weaker party to do certain things which, without that pressure, he would not do – including entering a contract. This is known as exerting undue influence. However, signing a contract under undue influence will not automatically mean it is invalid. You would have to prove that in doing so, the weaker party was manifestly disadvantaged as a result. * Where there is a commercial relationship, the court also recognise the existence of economic duress as part of the concept of undue influence. s