Rental Agreement vs. Lease Agreement

When an individual is searching
for an apartment to rent, it is important that he/she understands the
difference between a rental and lease agreement. Understanding the way in which
an individual’s contract operates is a vital aspect of renting or leasing property.

Though the terms rental
agreement and lease agreement are frequently used interchangeably, it is
important to note the various differences that exist between these two types of
contracts. The type of contract that an individual enters into will determine
the responsibilities and the rights that he/she possesses while he/she is held
to this contract.

In addition, these contracts range in regard to the
responsibilities and rights maintained by the landlord who is renting property
to a tenant.

A lease agreement is a type of contract that
regulates the relationship between tenants and landlords. A lease agreement
will last for a specified duration of time. In many instances, this period
lasts for one year, though this may vary substantially. While the contract is
active, both parties are required to adhere to all conditions detailed in the
contract. No alterations can be made to the contract while the contract is
active. Therefore, a landlord cannot choose to increase the cost of rent.

The conditions associated with rental
agreements are slightly different. For example, these contracts function as
month-to-month contracts. Every month, a tenant can choose to renew his/her
rental agreement or leave the property. In addition, once the month ends, alterations
can be made to the rental contract. Therefore, a landlord may decide to
increase the cost of rent at the end of every month.

Both rental and lease
agreements have beneficial and disadvantageous features.

Option Contracts Explained

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.

Must Know Facts About Tenancy Agreement

Contract Laws on Tenancy Agreements

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?”.

Tenancy Agreements as Forms of Leases

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.

Important Details on Service Level Agreement

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.

Subcontractor Agreement vs. Contractor Agreement

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.

100% of Facts About Trade Agreements You Need to Know

A trade agreement is a type of agreement that exists between two or more countries in order to govern the trading procedures that exist between these states. Within the domain of international trade, there are a range of tariffs and prohibitions which limit trade between certain countries.

Trade agreements can function to counteract these barriers and promote trade between these countries. Limiting trade barriers is advantageous for the United States economy, as it allows for the exportation of more goods. It also helps to benefit participating countries, as the United States can import an increased quantity of goods from these countries, and subsequently sell these goods within the United States. The details of a free trade agreement will vary from one agreement to another.

Currently, the United States is engaged in a free trade agreement with a number of different countries. For example, the U.S. has established a free trade agreement with Australia, Jordan, Panama, South Korea, and Singapore, just to name a few.

Perhaps the most widely known of the existing free trade agreements is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The North American Free Trade Agreement is an agreement that exists between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The initial stages of the agreement occurred between the United States and Canada, and subsequently, Mexico entered into the contract. NAFTA limits the trade barriers that existed between these three countries and encourages open trade.

Quick Overview to LLC Operating Agreement

In order to understand what an LLC Operating Agreement is and its function, it is first important to understand what an LLC is. LLC stands for Limited Liability Company. A Limited Liability Company is a business entity that maintains a number of features unique from other business organizations.

For example, an LLC combines features possessed by small partnerships and large corporations. In an LLC, the owner or owners of the company maintain limited liability if the company falls into debt. In addition, an LLC does not face the taxation experienced by corporations. These features make Limited Liability Companies attractive to potential business owners.

In order to create and operate an LLC in the United States, participating members must create an LLC Operating Agreement. If an LLC fails to create an LLC Operating Agreement, it will be held to the rules and regulations outlined by the state.

An LLC Operating Agreement outlines the rights, managerial duties, and financial responsibilities of all members involved in the creation and operation of an LLC. When a group of individuals chooses to establish an LLC, it should create an LLC Operating Agreement.

An LLC Operating Agreement template can be located online. This template will help an individual to determine what information to include within the agreement. Some features that should be addressed include the responsibilities of each member, the rights of each member, the interest percentages of each member, and how all losses or gains are to be allocated. In addition, the Operating Agreement should cover voting procedures, management techniques, and buyout regulations.

Read These Requirements of an Offer

In order to accurately understand the concept of agreement it is crucial to understand when a valid offer has been made. An offer is made when a party, known as the offeror, presents terms of a contract to another party. The party that receives the offer is known as the offeree. If the offeree accepts the offer, the two parties are considered to be in agreement.

In contrast to offers are “invitations to treat.” Invitations to treat are not offers. Invitations to treat can happen in a number of ways. Some of the most common include the display of goods in a store window, an auction without reserve, the solicitation of competitive bids, or advertisements for goods.

Except in specific circumstances, an auction does not constitute a legally binding offer and agreement process. An auction can be held with or without reserve. An auction without reserve is the rarer of the two kinds. An action without reserve means that the item will automatically be sold to the highest bidder regardless of the price.

An auction with reserve, or reserve auction, is an auction in which the person putting the item up for auction has stated a price below which they are unwilling to part with the item or circumstances under which they “reserve” the right to not complete the exchange of goods.

Auctions present interesting situations when considering offers and agreements. In an auction without reserve, the person placing the goods up for auction is obligated to accept the final bid. Each bid during the auction represents a new offer. Each higher bid that the auctioneer accepts means that the offer represented by the previous bid is invalidated.

During a reserve auction this can create some complications. If the person placing the goods up for auction decides against accepting the highest bid, they are left without an alternative. Even if the person would rather accept the second highest bid represented, they are unable to do so because the higher bid caused the previous bid to become voidable.

Advertisements are not usually considered to be offers because they may oblige the person creating the advertisement to sell more goods than they possess. As a result, an agreement cannot be reached as the result of an individual responding to an advertisement. Advertisements are technically considered “invitations to treat.” However, there are circumstances in which an advertisement can constitute an offer.

The Nineteenth Century case of Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company in England involved a promise by Carbolic Smoke Ball Company to pay £100 to anyone who used their product but still developed influenza, which their product was claimed to prevent. As guarantee of their claim, the advertisement said that the company had deposited £1000 in an account to pay anyone who caught the flu. The advertisement was considered to be a unilateral contract.

The agreement by Louisa Carlill was twofold. The first part of the agreement can be seen in her purchase of the smoke ball and the second element of agreement was her continued use of the ball. The English Court of Appeals ruled that the advertisement became a legally binding contract on several grounds.

The most relevant part of the ruling was that while an offer existed between the company and the entire world, a contract only existed with those individuals who had taken the actions to accept the terms of the offer. Acceptance in this case is interchangeable with agreement. This case also cemented the idea that conduct was sufficient to convey agreement with the terms of the advertisement’s offer.

Agreements to agree are not considered legally binding. These legal documents only reveal that the concerned parties are considering a future contract. In and of themselves, an agreement to agree does not mandate action on the part of either party. Agreements to agree arise when two parties are discussing an event involving future transactions which are still in progress.

A statement of future intent is not a legally binding contract. It only indicates an agreement by the two parties involved in the negotiation to attempt to form a future contract. An agreement to agree is not binding if the matter under discussion is still in dispute. An agreement to agree may be considered a contract, however, if the material terms of agreement are present.

Agreements to agree can become legally binding agreements if they contain all the typical elements of a contract. If, however, an agreement to agree merely records the terms that have been discussed in preliminary negotiations or they can be given the full weight of a contract to which both parties have agreed. Agreements to agree are sometimes known as letters of intent. Whether the document is titled an agreement to agree or a letter of intent, the legal significance of the terms is equal.

In order for agreement to occur, the offeree must have an intention to enter into the contract. Intention can be interpreted by action or by verbal acceptance of the terms provided by the offeror. Intention also extends to the offeror. The offeror’s intentions are rarely subject to question.

Intention to form a contract is one of the requirements to form a contract. Intention to be legally bound by a contract does not exist during the initial negotiation of a contract. Courts generally do not assign intention to either party by their interpretation of the parties’ statements of future intent or by agreements to agree.

Quick Overview on the Credit Agreement

Definition of a Credit Agreement

As a commonly applicable feature and function of U.S. contract law, a credit agreement can be expected to comprise of the contract drawn up between a bank, or financial institution of comparable resources and functions, and another legal entity designated as the recipient of a financial loan from that institution. As such, credit agreements are allowed for under U.S. contract law, as well as the contract laws used in other legal jurisdictions, in order to allow for the availability of credit issued to individuals and organizations.

Provisions of a Credit Agreement

As with other kinds of contracts also put into effect in a commercial or financial context, a credit agreement can be expected to establish the legally binding conditions which will govern the functions allowed for or prohibited between the two parties to the contract, as comprise in this case of the bank furnishing the loan and the individual or organization accepting that loan. Perhaps most importantly, the interest charged on the loan will generally be affixed through the provisions set forth in the credit agreement.

The composition of a credit agreement might further function toward specifying the point, if any, when the loan must be repaid in full to the lending bank and thus when the legal relationship between the bank and loan recipient will come to an end, though often this will not be found to apply.

Potential Settings for Credit Agreements

Credit cards and mortgages are some of the financial instruments potentially subject to credit agreements.

End User License Agreement

An end user license agreement, often referred simply as EULA for short, is a license that is included with most types of computer software. The end user license agreement essentially grants the end user, or buyer of the software, the right to use that particular software in a particular way. The end user license agreement is therefore a legally binding contract between the end user, or consumer, who will agree to specific terms of use and regulations imposed by the software company or producer, and the maker of that software.

The contract will oftentimes be presented in paper form, though the common practice has been to introduce the end user license agreement in the software itself, which will appear the first time the software is loaded into a particular computer prompting the end user to read and agree to the terms of using the particular product. The end user license agreement is provided by the software companies themselves, which does not require the end user to have to procure any kind of document as a contingency.

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