Renewal

This page covers how franchise renewal works in practice: when to start, what good standing requires, how the renewal agreement differs from the original, and what happens if the franchise is not renewed. This page summarizes the Franchise Renewal Policy, which governs. Renewal is a process you start: not a button you click, and not something that happens automatically because you have been a good operator.

Start eighteen months out

Operators who treat renewal as an event scramble in the final quarter. Treat it as a project

1. 18 months out: Read your agreement's renewal section fresh. Know the notice requirements, the conditions, and the fees. This is also when you make an honest self-assessment: are you in good standing? Any uncured defaults, unpaid fees, open audit findings? Every one of those is a renewal obstacle, and every one is fixable with time.
2. 12 months out: Cure everything. Pay what is owed, close what is open, complete what is incomplete. A renewal application filed while you are in breach is an application filed with a handicap.
3. Within the agreement's notice window: File the renewal notice in writing. Verbal assurances, handshake conversations, "we talked about it at the conference": none of these is a renewal notice. Paper.
4. Before expiry: Execute the renewal agreement. The new term's start date, expiry date, rate, and fee schedule are recorded just like the original; see Your Franchise Agreement. Confirm the record reflects what you signed.

The renewal agreement is not the old agreement

Expect the new agreement to differ from the one you signed years ago. Royalty rates change, fee schedules are restructured, standards are updated, territory language is refined. The renewal fee, if any, and the other renewal terms are stated in the renewal agreement and in the fee provisions of the Franchise Fees & Royalties Policy. Read the renewal agreement with the same care as the original: "it is just a renewal" is how people sign things they have not read. The term you are agreeing to is the next years of your business life; it deserves a full read.

Good standing is the price of admission

Renewal is generally conditioned on being in good standing: fees current, reports filed, no uncured defaults, standards compliance reasonably maintained. This is the quiet payoff of the discipline in Reporting Your Gross Sales through Audits and Inspections: operators who reconciled monthly, cured notices promptly, and kept training current do not have a renewal project; they have paperwork. The renewal process does not create good standing. It reveals whether you had it.

If renewal is not offered, or you decline

Not every relationship renews. If the franchisor declines renewal under the agreement's terms, or you decide not to renew, the post-term obligations activate

• De-identification: the brand comes off: signage, materials, digital presence.
• Final accounting: all fees settled, and a final Gross Sales report filed.
• Post-term restrictions: any that your agreement imposes.

Start the wind-down early. De-identification done calmly over months is a project; done frantically after expiry is a breach waiting to happen. The Franchise Termination Policy governs termination-related obligations, and the renewal-decline path follows the same obligations.