Supplementary Agreement Drafting

Overview

Agreements do not always survive contact with real life. A builder revises the possession date, a buyer's loan gets sanctioned late, the parties settle on a different payment schedule, or the price changes after the area is remeasured. Tearing up the signed agreement and starting again is slow and sometimes impossible, so the change is recorded in a supplementary agreement.

A supplementary agreement, sometimes called an addendum or a modification agreement, refers to the original document by date and parties and then states exactly which clauses are being changed, replaced or added. Everything else in the original continues to apply. The wording matters. A vague one-line note saying both parties agree to extend the date can start arguments about whether penalties still apply for the delay that has already happened, and whether the earlier terms on refund remain in force.

We draft supplementary agreements so that the change is explicit and so that the original and the new document read sensibly together. We also check whether the change needs fresh stamp duty or registration. If the original agreement was registered, the amendment may need to be registered as well, depending on what it changes, otherwise it may not hold up when you need it. If you have already signed an agreement and something has shifted, the safest course is to put the change in writing before the next payment is made.