Four contractual elements

Offer/acceptance
Parties must have come to an agreement before a legally binding contract can be entered. Such an agreement
consists of an offer being clearly made by one party, and then being willingly accepted by another party or parties.
Such an offer often comes with a set of conditions or terms which must be honoured if the receiver is to obtain the
benefit of that offer. In order to be legally binding, an offer must be precise and clear, and its terms and intentions
must be known by the receiving party.

Intention to create a legal relationship

As contracts are legally enforceable, both parties must be certain about their intention to create binding relations. A
contract can only be enforced if its terms demonstrate that both parties have clearly agreed upon all terms required to
perform the contract.

Consideration
After and offer has been made and accepted, and the parties have manifested an intention to enter binding legal
relations, a contract then requires the payment of ‘consideration’ in order to be made binding. For the purposes of
contract law, consideration refers to a price or cost paid for the promise or offer made by the offeror. Consideration
must be paid by the person to whom a promise has been made, and that consideration must be sufficient relative to
the value of that promise.

Key issues
 A contract’s acceptance must be clearly communicated in order for that contract to be effective. If not
expressly stated, acceptance can be implied through conduct.
 The benefits of a contract may only be enforced by its parties. Likewise, the burdens of a contract may only
be subjected to its parties.
 Although there are legal requirements for some types of contract to be issued in writing, the absence of a
written contract in that situation does not always make the contract void and unenforceable. 
 

Key considerations for contracts

Written contracts
Contracts do not need to be written in order to be enforceable. There are two types of contracts which are generally
legally required to be evidenced in writing; contracts for the sale or purchase of land/property, and also contracts of
guarantee. 
Termination of offer
Upon making an offer, the offeror is able to formally withdraw that offer before it is accepted. If that offer has been
accepted, and consideration paid, the offer cannot be withdrawn. Offers can also be terminated following changes in
circumstance, lapse of time, the inability of the offeree to perform an essential condition, or if one of the parties dies.

General termination of contracts, four main methods:

 Performed termination – occurs when the contract has been completed;
 Agreed termination – both parties agree to terminated;
 Legal discharge – occurs through frustration, illegality etc;
 Breach discharge – wounded party to a breached contract elects to discharge the contract.
 

Vitiating factors
Vitiating factors are the elements of a contract that are vital to its formation and existence. They can occur before a
contract is formalised. Vitiating factors may provide a remedy to the injured party should a contract be breached.

Performance
If a contract does not have a fixed order, each party agrees to do everything required of them to allow the other party
or parties to fully benefit from the contract. This depends on the nature of the actions and relationship involved;
 The standard of performance depends on four factors:

 Order of performance
 The time of performance
 Entire performance
 Strict and exact performance.
 

Misrepresentation
In contract law, misrepresentation refers to a false statement or statements made which convinces one party to enter
into a contract with the party who made the false statement/s.

To pick some data from this link too:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/valid-void-voidable-and-unenforceable-contracts.html