ABSTRACT
A contract will only come into existence if the offer, which is accepted, contains all the essential terms of the contract. A court must be able to identify, with certainty, exactly what has been agreed. It is a well established principle that a court will not write a contract for the parties. In deciding whether or not an agreement is sufficiently certain to amount to a contract, the courts do not consider the subjective views of the two parties, but take an objective view, by asking whether the reasonable person would have thought that the agreement was sufficiently certain. In contracts to sell goods or to supply services, a contract can exist even if the price has not been agreed. Section 8(1) of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 provides that the price in a contract of sale of goods may be fixed by the contract, may be left to be fixed in a manner agreed by the contract, or may be determined by the course of dealing between the parties. Section 8(2) of the Act provides that where the price is not determined by any of these methods, the buyer must pay a reasonable price. Section 15(1) of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 makes a similar provision where the contract is for the supply of a service.
