Housing & Real Estate Law. Contract Obligations. Case Study

Housing Law
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Housing Law
1 Contract Obligations
* Under contract law, both parties have an obligation to each other. Both parties are supposed to correspond to the terms of the contract as agreed. The seller had the obligation of providing all the necessary documents to Bell which he did. The second obligation is show the property to the Bell which he did without any hindrance. As the seller, Rodgers fulfilled his obligations. On the other hand, Bell is obligated to scrutinize all the documents to identify any liability which may change the contract and disclose that information to the seller. Secondly, Bell is obligated to give a notice of termination in case he wishes not to continue with the contract and provide a valid reason. In this case, Bell fulfilled this obligation by sending a termination notice to Rodgers. In general terms both parties fulfilled their obligations well.
Rodgers may seek relief of wanting Bell to continue with the contract or be compensated for all the time lost when he could have gotten another client for the property. Rodgers may not succeed with this suit because there are provisions for terminating the contract. Under the contract law, one is supposed to give a notice within 14 days which Bell did. It might be argued that Rodgers knew that Bell might not want to continue with the contract and decided to go on vacation for a period which the given notice period could have expired. Additionally, it might be argued that Rodgers was not available to respond to the notice and Bell could not have waited for him to get into another contract. This could have delayed Bell’s plans at the expense of Rodgers.
* Considerations for rescinding a contract
* Mutual consent- this is when both parties agree to rescind the contract and is best of their interests. In this case bell cannot rescind because there was not a mutual agreement between him and Rodgers.
* Circumstances under which the contract was formed- the conditions under which the contract was formed were conducive since there were no cases of force or fraud. Therefore, based on this consideration Bell cannot rescind.
* Inability of one party not to perform their obligations- there were no actions that indicated that Rodgers will not perform his obligations. Therefore, Bell cannot rescind under this consideration.
Grounds for rescission
* Misrepresentation- one party provides false or inaccurate information.
* Non-disclosure- one party fails to disclose important material facts.
* Undue influence or forced.
* A valid contract must be both agreed to by both parties, have an offer and acceptance and obligations which must be corresponded to by both interests. In this case, Rodgers and Bell agreed to get into a contract of transferring property. Rodgers had made an offer to Bell which he accepted. Accepting an offer is a demonstration that one is willing to correspond to his obligations. Therefore, in this case a valid agreement was reached on 22nd October at 9.00 pm.
* Rodgers was negligent because he owed Bell a duty of care by ensuring that their contract was closed within the shortest time. Rodgers went for a vacation before completing the deal. Conseque...