Week 4 Reflection

LAW/421

June 15, 2015
Elizabeth Manassau
Week 4 Reflection

“A contract is promise enforceable by law to either do something or refrain from doing something” (Melvin (2011). We deal with contracts or agreements on a daily basis, it happens everywhere. There are four elements of a contract. First is the agreement, which includes two parts: offer and acceptance, this indicates mutual assent, the second one is consideration, which indicates the values that must be bargained for between the parties. The third element is capacity, requiring both parties to have the power to contract, finally, the last element is legality it meaning that the terms of the contract is legally enforceable (Melvin, 2011). There are some common contracts that everyone will eventually be a party to, for example: an apartment or house lease contract, an employment contract, and a contract for the selling of a house or car. Everyone in our team has signed one of those agreements. We are all familiar with the apartment or house lease contract which is an agreement between the landlord, or property owner and the tenant. Both sides agree to lay down and follow a set of rules, for example: the length of the lease, the amount of rent, the due date of the rental, security deposit, late charge, amount of occupants, pet policy, property maintenance, change of terms, termination, attorney fees, insurance, keys and addendums, receipt of agreement, etc.... After reading through all the details both tenant and owner have to sign the agreement. This protects both parties, if one party does not follow the rules, the other party can take legal action to protect themselves. The hardest part for us this week was the learning the different categories of contracts, and determining whether the contract is valid, void, or unenforceable. Finding out more about the subtleties