What should a lease renewal addendum contain?

A renewal addendum is a short document doing a precise job: extending an existing agreement on stated terms. Re-Lease's standard renewal addendum template is built around the following elements.

• Identification of the original lease — the property address and unit, the parties, and the date of the original agreement, so the addendum cannot be read in isolation.
• The new period — the renewal commencement date and the new termination date.
• The rental payable for the renewal period, and any escalation that applies within it.
• Every other changed term, stated expressly. A term that is not mentioned is understood to be unchanged.
• Confirmation that the deposit held under the original lease carries forward, and any top-up required if the rental has increased.
• A clause confirming that all remaining terms of the original lease continue to apply.
• Signature blocks for each landlord and each tenant who was party to the original lease.

The most frequent defect is a renewal that changes the rent but says nothing about the deposit, leaving the deposit out of proportion to the new rental with no record of what the parties intended.

Where the Consumer Protection Act applies, the changed terms in the addendum should match the material changes that were disclosed in the expiry notice.

Disclaimer: This is general information about South African lease-renewal procedure, not legal advice. Dates are calculated from the information you provide and from published public holidays. Check them against your lease and take your own legal advice before acting.