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The Essential Elements of a Contract and the Applicable Remedies in the Event of a Breach.

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Business

I. The essential elements of a contract and the applicable remedies in the event of a breach.
Four Essential Elements of a Contract
An agreement must contain four essential elements to be regarded as a contract. If any one of them is missing, the agreement will not be legally binding.

a. Offer
There must be a definite, clearly stated offer to do something. For example: A quotation by sub-contractor to the main contractor and an offer to lease.
An offer does not include ball park estimates, requests for proposals, expressions of interest, or letters of intent.

An offer will lapse: * when the time for acceptance expires * if the offer is withdrawn before it is accepted * After a reasonable time in the circumstances (generally the greater the value of the contract, the longer the life of the offer).

Invitation to treatAn invitation to treat is a mere declaration of willingness to enter into negotiations; it is not an offer, and cannot be accepted so as to form a binding contract. An agreement is not created if there is an acceptance of the invitation to treat.An invitation to treat is part of the preliminaries of negotiation, whereas an offer is legally binding once accepted, subject to compliance with the terms of the offer. For example: Invitations to treat are advertisements, price lists, circulars and catalogues. |

b. Acceptance
Only what is offered can be accepted. This means that the offer must be accepted exactly as offered without conditions. If any new terms are suggested this is regarded as a counter offer which can be accepted or rejected.
There can be many offers and counter offers before there is an agreement. It is not important who makes the final offer, it is the acceptance of that offer that brings the negotiations to an end by establishing the terms and conditions of the contract.
Acceptance can be given

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