Free Consent

Your uncle is told by a builder that the flat he is buying has a clear title and a sea view. He signs. Later he learns there is a mortgage on it and the view is a wall. In another case, a moneylender tells a farmer, sign this or I will tell the police about your son's forged note. Both signatures are real. Are both contracts? The Contract Act says consent has to be free, and then lists five ways it can fail.

In two minutes

Consent is free only if it is not caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation or mistake (s.14); the first four make the contract voidable at the victim's option, while mutual mistake of fact makes it void.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Law of Contract and Specific Relief on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.