across the bar

suretyship clauses

by Steve - Posted 10 October 2008

Having suretyship clauses in your customer contracts comes in handy in hard times. Especially when your customers are close corporations or pty limited's with a R100 of share capital to its name. But if your suretyship clause is buried in the fine print, you won't be able to rely on it. Here are a few tips to sort this out: 

1. First prize is to put the suretyship into a seperate document or annexure and get the surety to sign it seperately from your customer contract.

2.   If you opt for including the suretyship in your contract, make sure the document heading contains a reference to "Suretyship".

3. If the clause is contained in the body of your customer contract, try to put it at the end just above where the signatory needs to sign.

4. In the signature section, refer to the fact that the signatory is signing as a surety (and on behalf of the debtor if necessary).

5. Use  BOLD or a different type or colour font to highlight the clause.