Option contracts are contracts in which the offeror, or promisor, is limited in their ability to withdraw or rescind a contract. An option contract is an important element of a unilateral contract. Traditionally a unilateral contract is only formed when the action under consideration is completed. This is an issue because it provides no protection to an offeree who has completed the partial performance of the contracted action before the offeror withdraws the contract under discussion. 

An option contract transforms a unilateral contract into a bilateral one because it provides some guarantee to any party providing agreement to the contract that their actions will receive compensation. The compensation may begin immediately after the action is begun or may only come into effect once a significant portion of the work is completed. The party which has engaged an action leading to the partial performance of the contract may be able to claim detrimental reliance upon the belief that the offeror would provide payment.

For instance, Mike hired Steve to paint the walls and ceiling of his room for $100. Mike told Steve to leave after Steve had finished painting the four walls and was in the middle of painting the ceiling.

Under a traditional unilateral contract, Steve would not be entitled to any of the $100 because the money was provided as consideration for the completion of the task. Steve, however, could compel Mike through promissory estoppel to compensate him for the partial performance of the task. Steve undertook the actions under a detrimental reliance that Mike would allow him to complete to task.

Option contracts are usually found in real estate. Real estate option contracts exist primarily for the benefit of the buyer. The buyer in a real estate option contract is allowed time to secure financing, to arrange for a contractor to examine the land, and to investigate relevant zoning laws governing the property.

Real estate option contracts do not oblige the buyer to grant agreement to the seller’s offer. Agreement in real estate contracts can be withheld by a buyer looking to make money off the land. Real estate option contracts often have a short period of time before the terms laid out in the contract lapse.

Contract Law Context for Service Level Agreements

 

 

A service level agreement (SLA) is a kind of contract which sets the understood and legally bearing conditions, or level, for a certain specific kind of commercially offered and accessed service.

 

 

As with other kinds of contracts also passed in the commercial and business world, a service level agreement will necessarily involve at least two entities signatory to the contract and thus subject to its provisions, thereby establishing a legal relationship, as could be further used, upon claimed instances of violation or illegal modification thereof, to furnish the grounds for a process of civil litigation transacted in the U.S. legal system. 

 

 

Identifying Service Level Agreements

 

 

A service level agreement must necessarily be identified in order for the correct application of U.S. contract law, in terms of those contracts passed which specifically designate one party to the document as being the customer and the other as being the entity furnishing a particular service to that customer. A third party contract, necessarily, is thus precluded from the language considered as applying to service level agreements. 

 

 

Subjects for Service Level Agreements

 

 

Some of the functions which might be covered under service level agreements can be expected to comprise categories such as:

 

 

    Priority

 

 

    Obligation

 

 

    Guarantee

 

 

    Warranty

 

 

Different Service Level Agreement Types

 

 

A service level agreement might potentially comprise customer-based, service-based, multi-level, corporate-level, customer-level, and service-level service level agreements, as legal measures commonly applicable in such cases. 

As a subset of U.S. contract law, a tenancy agreement can be expected to comprise the document through which the legal relationship between a landlord and his or her tenant is established. As with other kinds of contracts, tenancy agreements typically pertain to the conditions agreed to and entered into on the part of both of the signatory and named parties to the contract.

More specifically, a tenancy agreement entered into on the part of both parties in the U.S. or another comparable and similarly-functioning legal jurisdiction and system can and should be expected to answer the questions “who?,” “what?,” “when?,” and “how much?”. 

A tenancy agreement could be considered a kind of lease, and indeed it will often be referred to with this term. In the U.S. and other legal systems considered to come under the overall heading of so-called “civil law,” a tenancy agreement, or any other form of lease alternately entered into by a property owner and prospective property user, must include the specified and necessary element of rent payable on the part of the contracting individual to the property owner.

Tenancy agreements can be understood as potentially differing from other kinds of leases, as might be alternately entered into, in terms of being for expressly residential purposes. As such, the parties signing a tenancy agreement will typically be landlord and tenant. A tenancy agreement might also variously come in such forms as fixed, periodic and indefinite leases.

 

If there is a history of contractual relations between the two parties and the offeree does not comment on a proffered contract, their silent acceptance may be inferred from past history. However, a series of contracts must exist for this standard to be applied.

The terms of acceptance, such as requiring that acceptance be faxed or mailed to the offeror, may be laid out in the text of the offer. These are acceptable restrictions that can be placed on conditions of acceptance and are not considered to place an unreasonable burden upon the offeree. The acceptance must be returned in such a way that meets or surpasses the level laid out by the offerror.

If the acceptance is sent through the postal system, it is considered to be in effect as soon as the postage on it has been paid, whether it is delivered to the offeror or not. This is the case because the acceptor fulfilled a reasonable attempt to convey their acceptance. In addition, forcing the acceptor to ensure that the postal service completed delivery of the acceptance is seen as placing an unfair burden on the acceptor. The one exception to this “mailbox rule” is in contracts which specify that the contract is conditional on receipt of acceptance.

The acceptance must be made in a timely manner. If the offer does not give a deadline by which the contract must be accepted, the courts have decreed that the acceptance must still be in a reasonable amount of time. It is impossible for acceptance to be delayed forever.

In order to understand the difference between a contractor agreement and a subcontractor agreement, it is first important to understand the difference between a contractor and a subcontractor. In many instances, a business will hire a contractor to complete certain tasks or duties.

 

 

A contractor is not considered to be an employee. Instead, a contractor will act as an independent entity, performing certain tasks for the company. A contractor agreement is an agreement that exists between a company and a contractor that the company hires. This agreement will be documented in written form. 

 

 

The document will outline all pertinent features of the agreement, including the tasks that are to be completed by the contractor, the time period that the contractor has to complete these tasks, and the compensation that the contractor will receive for his/her work. 

 

 

In order to successfully complete the tasks outlined in a contractor agreement, a contractor may be required to hire a subcontractor. A subcontractor is an individual who is hired by a contractor to provide the contractor with goods or services necessary to complete the tasks specified in an existing agreement. A subcontractor will be hired by a contractor after the contractor has been hired by a company.

 

 

 

A subcontractor agreement usually exists between a contractor and a subcontractor. It outlines information similar to the conditions detailed in a contractor agreement. In most instances, the contractor will be responsible for compensating the subcontractor and the subcontractor is required to complete certain tasks for the contractor. Both a contractor and subcontractor work together to complete specified duties for a company or an individual. 

A cohabitation agreement is a type of legal contract that exists between two individuals who live together. This type of legal agreement functions to ensure that a couple residing within the same home are protected from legal proceedings and costs if they choose to separate in the future. A cohabitation agreement will detail the rights and responsibilities of both parties.

In many ways, this type of agreement is similar to a prenuptial agreement. It will detail the financial responsibilities of each individual. For example, a cohabitation agreement may indicate that each party is responsible for contributing equally to the financial responsibilities that arise throughout the duration of their cohabitation. These costs may include rent or mortgage payments, utilities, and groceries, just to name a few.

In addition, a cohabitation agreement will detail how property is to be divided in the event that the couple separates. This contract will list which assets are to be designated to each individual upon separation. This agreement is particularly important when considering assets that were purchased by both parties jointly.

Other factors that may be covered in a cohabitation agreement include the financial and personal responsibilities of caring for any existing children and the responsibilities of each party in regard to addressing debt.

Many couples who decide to live together do not consider a cohabitation agreement. However, this contract is important to ensure that the rights of each party are upheld in the event of an unforeseen separation.

A rental agreement is often referred to as a “lease,” particularly in the frequently applicable case of the specific rental agreement being in relation to the provision of a real estate holding. A rental agreement can more generally be noted as taking effect in the general context of contract law, and as with contracts in general, may be expected to provide for setting conditions in relation to the legal relationship between the two parties to the rental agreement.

In the event of a contract taking the specific form of a rental agreement, those two entities concerned with and signatory to the legal document will often be a landlord and a tenant. 

A rental agreement can generally be expected to provide for such various issues inherent in a real estate contract as the person obliged to pay for tenancy and the individuals who will actually act as tenants, the date on which tenancy may be allowed to begin, the address and extent of the real estate subject to the rental agreement, and the financial payments to be payable to the landlord.

A rental agreement might also be granted to the real estate holding’s non-owner for a purpose other than residence, such as for parking transportation, storing property or others’ goods, transacting business, carrying out agricultural activities, or conducting the business required for a government agency or institution. 

A loan agreement can be noted in the overall context of contract law as a specific form which might be taken by the overall document of a contract, both in terms of the subject designated by a contract taking this particular form, as well as in the implied legal entities to be involved in such a legal agreement. 

A loan agreement, which might or might not also be referred to as a credit agreement, can thus be noted as an agreement between a lender and lendee as to the conditions under which the loan is granted and the obligations which the lendee agrees to take on and grant legal force toward his, her, or their obligation to the lender. 

Some of the conditions, as referenced above, as might conceivably be applied for by the creation of a loan agreement could include the date by which the loan granted must be returned in full to the lender, or the interest which will be made necessarily payable to the lender at regular increments and at set amounts. 

Loan agreements are typically distinguished in terms of being sorted between bilateral and syndicated loans, which refers to the specific type of lender furnishing the loan to the lendee. They may also be distinguished in terms of the facility involved, between term and revolving loans. Further areas for differentiation include secured/unsecured and fixed-/floating interest loans. 

A Marital Settlement Agreement is a kind of contract which can be drawn up by the two primary parties to the legal action of a marital divorce, as provides for the settlement of the various rights, privileges, and responsibilities held by the two individuals without the necessity of further litigation or adjudication.

U.S. divorce laws are, for the most part, formulated and carried out on a state-by-state basis. Thus, the particular Marital Settlement Agreement drawn up in reference to a particular marriage should refer to the applicable laws of that specific jurisdiction and provide against the possibility of provisions which cannot legally go into effect in that particular state.

A Marital Settlement Agreement, as will generally be entered into with the assistance of legal counsel separately retained by both of the parties to the divorce, can most effectively proceed by providing for all of the potentially legally relevant aspects of the legal relationship between the two individuals.

A Marital Settlement Agreement does not itself provide for the legal effectiveness of the severing of the legal relationship between the two parties signatory to the contract in the form of a divorce, nor does it enact the initiation of the legal process of the court considering and potentially approving the rightness of such a legal motion. Often Marital Settlement contracts are drawn up as preambles to entering into an amicable divorce.