Teat v Willcocks : Consideration and Variation Contracts Revisited

When an agreement is made to vary an existing informal contract, the traditional view is the promisee must provide consideration in order to be able to enforce a promise in his or her favour. This consideration must be additional to any duties already owing under the existing contract. However, in recent times there has been a relaxing of this strict rule in New Zealand. The Court of Appeal's decision in Teat v Willcocks has confirmed that, as far as it is concerned, no consideration is needed for agreements varying existing contracts