Our Expertise > Franchise and Licence Agreements
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Franchise and Licence AgreementsOver 50% of our work is for franchise clients, including:
Our franchisor clients include Muffin Break, Esquires CoffeeHouses, PORSE, Adam Parore Mortgages, Civic Video and Target Furniture. FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS
As well as writing franchise agreements for new franchise systems, some franchisors have existing franchise agreements that are several years old. We are always reviewing the types of clauses we use in new agreements and recommend that franchisors review their agreement annually or at least every couple of years. We can assist with a review which may result in recommendations for updates or additions, both to provide for any legal changes, and to anticipate and allow for problem areas that have come to our attention over the intervening period. If the agreement is sound, we will tell you and not make changes for the sake of it.
The Personal Property Securities Act and registration procedure will entitle many Franchisors to secure payments of any kind due from Franchisees. This is an example of an area of law reform which meant many existing contract clauses became ineffective.
Clauses that cover ownership of clients, territory rights, minimum performance objectives and use of intellectual property are areas in which agreements can be often be improved. Lizandra Bailey regularly reviews franchise agreements for clients and receives positive feedback for her recommendations.
If you have a Disclosure Document (mandatory for members of Franchise Association of NZ and for many overseas markets) it should also be updated annually, and be consistent with the Franchise Agreement.
Why not give Lizandra a ring now and discuss with her a review or "tune up" of your valuable franchise agreement.
FRANCHISE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Once the Franchise Agreement has been drafted and finalised there will be negotiations, possible amendments, and associated documents to process and deal with for each franchisee applicant.
We recommend that your Franchise Agreement should be a standard document with any special or different conditions recognised in the Schedule or a Special Conditions clause. This keeps things consistent and helps avoid confusion and disparity between different franchisees (and they will compare, given the opportunity).
Some franchise systems will also involve lease documents and Sale & Purchase of Business Agreements for each new franchise and these can be standard or variable depending on the nature of the business.
Dealing with multiple documents, chasing up franchisees to sign and return documents, photocopying, printing, etc. - all can be a frustrating use of your time. We provide a total document management service which starts with your request to proceed and ends with you being sent a completed set of signed documents.
This includes:
A real advantage is that many Franchise Agreements provide for the franchisee to pay the franchisor's legal costs on new and renewed franchises. We can give fixed fees and invoice your legal costs directly to the franchisee - in effect, you are not even paying for this work.
FRANCHISEE INDEPENDENT ADVICE
We also act for a number of franchisees (where we are not doing the franchisor's legal work). We are very familiar with the documents they need to sign and we have a good relationship with many franchisors. We can provide estimates of fees for the franchisees and many franchisors (which we do not act for) will refer potential franchisees to us for focused, quick, yet independent advice. Our role here is to ensure potential franchisees fully understand the obligations they are committing to, and even if they seem harsh, there are no surprises down the track in how the relationship unfolds.
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