Assess the Problems That Arise Through Terminating and Offer

There are six different ways in which an offer can be terminated, these method are, Acceptance, Rejection, Revocation, Lapse of time, Failure to comply with conditions and Death. Alongside these ways of terminating an offer come problems. The problems that can arise with some of these methods including counter offers being made, revocation of a unilateral offer and the postal rule can cause problems for acceptance and revocation.

A counter offer is an offer which has been made in response to a previous offer made by the offeree to the offeror, usually during negotiations when putting together the final contract. By making a counter offer the first offer that was given now becomes void and the counter offer must now be accepted or rejected for it to be recognised as part of the contract. If the original offer has been rejected and another offer put forward in its place is also rejected then the original offer cannot then be accepted, there is no way of going back to the original offer as seen in Hyde v Wrench (1840) in which Wrench had offered to sell Hyde his farm for £1,000, but Hyde rejected this by making a counter-offer and saying he would pay £950. Wrench decided to reject Hyde’s offer therefore forming no contract. As soon as Wrench rejected this offer Hyde said he would go back to the original price which he could not, so he was unable to sue Wrench when he tried to sell to another buyer. Hyde was unable to sue due to the counter-offer he had made. This idea of counter-offers can cause problems when terminating an offer because how can you tell when a counter-offer has been made and when a mere enquiry has been made. It is easily distinguished by the language and phrases used when making the enquiry, for it to be classed as a counter-offer it must want to change the terms of the offer and not just ask a question about it for example a phrase such as “party A offered to sell something to party B for £5000, and B said he would pay £5000 if they are willing...