What is a Ratified Contract: Everything you need to know
A ratified contract secures both the buyer and seller relationship toward a legally binding agreement, ensuring all contractual needs are met.
Whether you are saving up to buy a house, invest in real estate, or start a small business, you require an initial contract that spells out all your contractual needs and conditions of an agreement. Even though the term 'ratified contract' is more obtainable in real estate, it finds significant relevance in modern digital business. This article aims to enlighten you about a ratified contract, common scenarios, and everything you need to know about it.
What is a Ratified Contract?
A ratified contract is an agreement between parties under agreed terms and conditions awaiting signing date as a complete guide to the ratification process. In other words, it is an agreement that has been approved but not necessarily signed. Such occurrence happens when two parties enter into a negotiation but one of the parties lacks the authority to sign the contract. Therefore the contract requires the intervention of people occupying a higher cader of command for approval.
When and why do you need a ratified contract?
An understanding of common scenarios in negotiations and real estate terms enables you to accord the right amount of power to your external representatives, ensuring unanimous agreement. It will also help you avoid disputes and problematic situations that arise due to want of legal understanding, ensuring benefits are maintained for property agreements.
Every buyer and seller transaction is a contract and may require additional steps, documentation, and legal processes, such as earnest money and financing approval. Therefore, you can add online generated invoices or receipts to the transactional terms as a seller. Alternatively, when you need a loan or mortgage, your W-2 form also qualifies you to push through with the contract.
How to ratify a contract
Sometimes, some contracts do not offer enough assurance and coverage to guarantee business safety, especially when dealing with void contracts where a contract considered ratified needs careful handling. Similarly, a signed contract is not always sufficient to be a binding agreement for a business owner or entrepreneur. For instance, if your employee signs a contract on your behalf, the other party may require you to ratify it.
Ratifying the signed contract confirms your acceptance of the terms, making it a legally binding agreement. In addition, ratifying a contract enforces it regardless of any valid reasons you may have to void it. Fortunately, in all situations requiring you to ratify a contract, you have the right to refuse/opt-out and invalidate the contract. Here are the right steps to take toward ratifying a contract.
Step one
Study the agreement and ensure that you fully understand the terms and conditions. You must establish a full understanding of all clauses that constitute the entire document. The reason is that you cannot ratify a selected aspect of the agreement.
As a result, full understanding and clarity are critical. However, if you come across something you do not understand, you can immediately call for voiding to invalidate it. You can also call for an amendment and recreation of the document to ensure your safety. It is regrettable to agree to something you do not understand.
Step Two
Make a direct declaration that fully expresses your approval of the agreement. A direct declaration requires a written expression or verbal declaration that you approve and wish to enforce the contract. If you miss providing an expression of approval but act by the contract statements, you remain bound by implication.
Step Three
You must progressively honor the entire contract, ensuring every term of the ratified contract is completed as agreed. Essentially once a contract is ratified, it becomes binding. Therefore you are liable for any breach of contract.
Can a Voidable Contract Be Ratified?
Yes, a voidable contract can indeed be ratified.
A voidable contract initially holds legal validity and can be enforced but may be nullified or cancelled by one of the involved parties due to specific reasons like fraud, duress, undue influence, or incapacity. Despite its initial status, if the empowered party opts not to cancel the contract within a certain period, or if they relinquish their right to do so, the contract can be ratified.
Ratification occurs when the party with the authority to nullify the contract voluntarily decides to affirm the contract's terms, confirming its validity. This affirmation can be explicit through written or spoken consent, or implicit, evidenced by actions such as adhering to the contractual obligations. For example, in a real estate transaction, continuing to pay an earnest money deposit or accepting a buyer’s offer can signify ratification.
Once a contract is ratified, particularly in scenarios like a home purchase or other real estate contracts, it becomes fully enforceable. The real estate agent may secure a commitment letter from the title company, ensuring all legalities are adhered to by the closing date. This ensures that the contract, initially legally enforceable but voidable, is affirmed and becomes indisputable.
Moreover, once ratified, such ratified contracts remove the initial grounds for nullification. In terms of final execution, this means the contract chooses to lock in the terms agreed upon at the start, typically observed in home buying transactions. This makes the details of the agreement more easily accessible and reduces complications that can vary depending on the situation.
Thus, ratifying a purchase offer or any part of a real estate contract solidifies the deal, ensuring all parties move forward under a unified, legally binding framework.
Is backing out of a ratified contract possible?
A ratified contract is legally binding on all participating parties. It is impossible to back out of a ratified contract unless the other parties agree to it. In which case, all participating parties in the contract would have dissolved it. For instance, in real estate, a contract remains binding even if all conditions for purchase are lifted.
It means that, although the purchase agreement may not have been signed, the ratified contract to purchase remains binding, including all contingencies and terms typically found in such agreements. So, backing out of such an agreement allows the other party to exercise legal actions for a breach of contract. Ratification secures commitment to an agreement by legally binding the parties to an agreement that could have otherwise been voided.
Final Thought
Getting into a ratified contract requires the utmost discretion, especially with voidable contacts. If you lack the requisite knowledge to interpret the terms of the contract, a lawyer can help. Hopefully, this article serves as an initial step towards understanding how legal actions in business and finance work.