Work through a franchise transfer with clearer legal steps

A transfer often starts with checking what the franchise agreement says about assignment, consent, fees and conditions for an incoming operator. From there, the legal work may involve reviewing disclosure material, preparing or checking transfer documents, and identifying any related approvals or side documents that need updating. The sequence matters because a missed consent step or inconsistent document can slow the deal down. Our role is to help map the legal steps and paperwork, while third-party decisions such as franchisor approval remain outside Sprintlaw's control.

We will usually need the current franchise agreement, any proposed sale or transfer terms, details of the outgoing and incoming franchisee, and any correspondence about consent or approval requirements. If there are transfer fees, training conditions, restraint issues, lease arrangements or intellectual property licences tied to the site, those details are helpful too. The more complete the documents are at the outset, the easier it is to identify what needs to happen first and whether extra documents or consents are likely to be required.

Franchise transfers commonly depend on decisions or actions by people outside the legal drafting process. That can include franchisor consent, landlord involvement where premises are leased, lender requirements, or the incoming franchisee satisfying operational or training conditions. Those steps can affect timing even where the legal documents are ready. We can advise on how those approval points interact with the transfer paperwork and flag where sequencing matters, but we cannot promise that a third party will approve the transfer or respond within a particular timeframe.

It can be used by either side, depending on the role you are playing in the transfer. A franchisee may need help understanding consent conditions, transfer fees and what documents they are expected to sign. A franchisor may want support reviewing the proposed transfer structure, updating transfer paperwork and protecting brand controls during the handover. The service is process-focused rather than party-specific, but we act for one client in relation to the matter and give advice from that client's position rather than both sides at once.

A template may record the basic handover, but franchise transfers often involve more moving parts than a simple assignment. The franchise agreement may impose specific consent steps, disclosure obligations, fee provisions, training conditions or restrictions on who can take over the business. There may also be related documents affecting brand use, operations or premises. This service looks at the transfer pathway as a whole and checks whether the paperwork lines up with the existing franchise framework, rather than treating the matter as a single standalone form.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Franchise Transfer Legal Support service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.