{"id":528,"date":"2015-11-12T11:46:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T09:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/?p=528"},"modified":"2015-11-17T10:55:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T08:55:27","slug":"contracts-leave-no-shadow-of-a-doubt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/2015\/11\/12\/contracts-leave-no-shadow-of-a-doubt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"CONTRACTS \u2013 LEAVE NO SHADOW OF A DOUBT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/contracts.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-543\" src=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/contracts-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"contracts\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/contracts-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/contracts.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Contracts should always contain a \u201cnon-variation\u201d clause providing that no variation of the agreement is of any force or effect unless it is in writing and is signed by all parties. \u00a0 A recent High Court case resulting from a property dispute shows why.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Landlord v Tenant: \u00a0The restaurant that fell on hard times \u2026..\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>A restaurant owner, who rented premises in terms of a lease agreement containing a standard non-variation clause, fell on hard times and ran up rental arrears.<\/li>\n<li>The landlord cancelled the lease and gave written notice to the tenant to vacate the premises.<\/li>\n<li>When the tenant refused to vacate, the landlord asked the Court for an eviction order.<\/li>\n<li>The tenant\u2019s defence was that it had verbally agreed with the landlord to pay a reduced rental (set at 25% of daily takings), that it had complied with this alleged \u201ccompromise agreement\u201d, and that it should not therefore be evicted. \u00a0It argued (citing public policy considerations amongst other legal principles) that an oral agreement should suffice in the particular circumstances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>\u2026.. and the certainty principle <\/em><\/strong> But to no avail. \u00a0Commenting that when parties to a contract impose restrictions on their own powers to vary the contract \u201cthey do so to achieve certainty and avoid later disputes\u201d, the Court granted the eviction order and gave the tenant 5 days to vacate the premises. \u00a0 <strong><em>Protect your position<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A non-variation clause, worded correctly to suit your particular needs, is essential. \u00a0Without it, you could end up arguing endlessly (and expensively) in a succession of courts about who agreed what, with whom, and when.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Comply strictly with the clause, no matter how great the temptation may be to accept verbal undertakings and agreements from the other party. \u00a0<strong>This is a case where compliance with formalities is essential.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even if by some mischance your agreement allows verbal amendment or cancellation, still reduce everything to writing to avoid uncertainty and dispute down the line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>P.S. Beware electronic amendment! <\/em><\/strong> Next month we\u2019ll look at a related danger \u2013 that of inadvertently concluding, amending and\/or cancelling agreements by email or other electronic messaging, which can amount to both \u201cwritten\u201d and \u201csigned\u201d agreement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Source: Law Dot News &#8211;\u00a0Feb 2015<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contracts should always contain a \u201cnon-variation\u201d clause providing that no variation of the agreement is of any force or effect unless it is in writing and is signed by all parties. \u00a0 A recent High Court case resulting from a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}