ESSENTIALS ELEMENTS OF CONSIDERATION

The essentials of consideration are discussed as follows:

 Desire of the promisor

An act or restraint of the promise establishing the consideration should have been made or done
upon the request of promisor. Therefore, an act that has been done as per the desire of any third
or is done without the promisor’s desire will not be able to develop a valid consideration.

 Move / from promisee or any other person

In return consideration might be from the promisee himself or by some other individual even by an
unknown.

 Consideration may be past, present or future

The consideration might be past (done or refrained from doing), present (does or refrains from doing) or
future (promises to do or to refrain from doing).

- The consideration that is moved before the agreement formation is known as past consideration
- The consideration that moves at the same time as the promise is known as present consideration.
- The consideration that moves after the agreement formation is known as future consideration.

 Consideration to have some value

There is no condition for the sufficiency of consideration however it must have some worth. There should
be something in return and this something consequently is not needed to be equivalent in worth to
something that is given.

 Consideration must be real

The consideration should be based on reality rather than illusion.

  Something which the promisor is not already bound to do

It can be an act, self-restraint, forbearance or a return of any promise e.g. negotiation of a conflicted claim
or an arrangement with the creditor.

The consideration might be something that the promisor is not bound to perform since a promise that tells
the promisor to do something that he is already bound to perform has nothing to add in the current
obligation

 Lawful

The consideration must not be illegal or shouldn’t oppose any public policy.