Onerous is all that it implies expenses, costs, burdens or inconveniences excessive for someone. The term is derived from Latin onus, eris or onerosus, which means ‘load’, ‘weight’, ‘bundle’. Two meanings emerge from this: expensive or annoying.
The term onerous is used when something is very expensive to obtain, even when it is so expensive that it is ostentatious. For example: “The cost of restoring the old palace is extremely onerous.”
The term is also used to indicate that an issue has been an enormous weight or burden for someone. It also implies the fact that it generates discomfort, that it is annoying. For example: “This has become a very onerous matter to bear.” Also: “José’s state of health has been a very onerous burden for the family.”
This meaning is confirmed by the opposite word, exonerate, which means to free a person from a burden, whether economic, physical or moral.
The meaning of burdensome is also used to designate what is uncomfortable, overwhelming, suffocating, heavy, annoying, something burdensome, oppressive, suffocating or overloading. For example, an expensive course, an expensive trip, an expensive cause, etc.
Onerous in law
Onerous is a legal term used to classify contracts. Are onerous contracts those in which both parties have reciprocal economic obligations and advantages.
This is the case, for example, of renting an office. The tenant pays the owner to take advantage of that property and the owner receives a payment for giving up the property. On the other hand, in free contracts only one of the parties has the burden.
Onerous in economy
In economics, a Onerous title It is a non-profit legal act or transaction concluded between two or more parties through reciprocal and equivalent consideration.
This means that, by signing a document, all parties acquire obligations and rights of equivalent importance, which must be respected, under penalty of the violating party having to compensate the affected party for damages caused by non-compliance. contract.
In this matter, several contract models qualify as onerous title: purchase and sale contracts, rental contracts, contracts to establish companies, etc.
See also Exonerate.