Novation agreement

Transfer of service contract
5 Reviews
Select support levelCompare
Recommended

Document overview

Transfer a service contract between customers using this easy to use and effective novation contract. Although this novation agreement can be used to transfer any service contract, we have used the example of a transfer of website hosting services between hosting providers. Changes for other types of service agreement are very simple to make. The most common use for this agreement would be to change the parties to service contracts on the purchase of a business.
Compliant
Compliant with the latest law
Document propertied
Document properties
  • Length:47 pages (1405 words)
  • Available in:
    MsWordMicrosoft Word DOCXApple pagesApple PagesRTFRTF
watertight guarantee
Backed by our watertight guarantee

If the document isn’t right for your circumstances for any reason, just tell us and we’ll refund you in full immediately.

writing in plain english
Written in plain English

We avoid legal terminology unless necessary. Plain English makes our documents easy to understand, easy to edit and more likely to be accepted.

Notes
Guidance notes included

You don’t need legal knowledge to use our documents. We explain what to edit and how in the guidance notes included at the end of the document.

email
Support from our legal team

Email us with questions about editing your document. Use our Lawyer Assist service if you’d like our legal team to check your document will do as you intend.

Update
Up to date with the latest law

Our documents comply with the latest relevant law. Our lawyers regularly review how new law affects each document in our library.

About this novation agreement

Use this document to transfer one party’s rights and obligations under a service contract to another party.

This is a simple yet comprehensive agreement that can be used to novate any service contract with only minimal editing. It ensures continuity of service when the party receiving the service changes. For the purposes of providing a working example, this document has been edited to allow the transfer of a website hosting service agreement between the customers of an Internet service provider (ISP).

The consent of all three parties - the transferee, the transferor and the other contracting party - is required to effect the novation. Unless you specifically require the consent of the other contracting party (perhaps because your contract has a non-assignment clause), our assignment agreement may be an even simpler way of transferring your contract to someone else.

Why not a deed of novation?

The deed format is used where one party to a contract receives no consideration. However, a novation is invariably "for value", and as such, a deed of novation confers little additional advantage.

In the unlikely event that a party agrees to novation out of pure kindness, the consideration can be entered as “one pound”, or a "peppercorn". The sum does not need to have any relation to the value of the debt being novated.

When to use this novation agreement

This document can be used to transfer any service contract to another party. There are, of course, many uses for this agreement.

Examples of when this document might be used include:

  • On the sale/purchase of a business that depends on the continuation of certain services (e.g. website hosting)
  • On the sale of an asset in the process of being produced or amended

The buyer of this document might be:

  • The service provider, looking to make sure that the buyer of the business keeps his business with the service provider
  • The buyer of the business, keen to sort out the smooth transfer of day to day operations
  • The seller of the business, who wishes to make a sale as easy and therefore as attractive to a prospective buyer as possible

You should use this novation agreement, rather than an assignment agreement if all parties to the contract will agree to the change and sign the contract. Its usually easier just to get the transferring parties to sign an assignment agreement, but some contracts have non-assignment clauses that mean that novation is the only valid way of transferring the contract to someone else. If in doubt, use this agreement and obtain consent from all involved.

Agreement features and contents

  • Suitable for transferring service contracts;
  • Suitable when either party is resident outside the South Africa
  • Ensures a legal transfer as it is drawn as an agreement between all parties;
  • Comprehensive provisions provide ideas for you to mould

The novation agreement contains the following sections:

  • Details of the parties;
  • Indemintity clause to protect both parties from loss, damage or legal liability once the contract is transferred;
  • The novation;
  • Existing claims: sets out how outstanding claims against the transferor will be dealt with;
  • Other usual legal provisions in plain English.
Sample novation agreementFront cover
Click to View Sample

Recent reviews

Great Service
02 February 2018
Biggest concern was whether to document would be relevant to my requirements but the investment was small enough to discard if it wasn't. The document provided a starting point to modify to my requirements rather than spending time creating from scratch. At this stage I haven't used the document because I took a different approach but I am happy to have the template as a format for future use. I would recommend Net Lawman to others as it's a quick start to legal documents with an advisory service to back it up. Very happy with what I received.
Ian McGough
Review of the New Zealand version
Great Service
29 April 2014
Practically perfect in every way.
Andy Lovatt
Review of the United Kingdom version
Great Service
22 June 2013
This agreement was written exactly as I like: clearly and in plain English.
The explanatory notes were helpful, without getting in the way.
The fact that this cost my organisation £18 instead of £1000's of lawyers time is all to the good.
Jonathan Bell
Review of the United Kingdom version
Read all 5 reviews

Choose the level of support you need

Document Only

Complete the document template yourself using our guidance notes
R199.00
  • ok This document
  • okDetailed guidance notes explaining how to edit each paragraph
Recommended

Lawyer Assist

Support from our legal team during and after editing
193 Reviews
R2,198.00
  • ok This document
  • okDetailed guidance notes explaining how to edit each paragraph
  • okUnlimited email support - ask our legal team any question related to completing the document
  • ok
    Review of your edited document by our legal team including:
    • reporting on whether your changes comply with the law
    • answering your questions about how to word a new clause or achieve an outcome
    • checking that your use of defined terms is correct and consistent
    • correcting spelling mistakes
    • reformatting the document ready to sign
© 2000 - 2024 Net Lawman Limited.
All rights reserved