A franchise is a licensed contractual right which is not necessarily transferable unless there is a provision in the Agreement to transfer and/or novate those rights. Novation is the substitution of a new contract for an old one whereby the new Agreement extinguishes the rights and obligations that were in effect under the old Agreement.
The Code requires in Clause 17.1(7) that franchisors disclose whether a right to transfer a franchise exists and, if so, the conditions of transfer. Even if there is no express provision for transfer in the Agreement, a franchisee may still request the franchisor to consent to a transfer however there is no contractual obligation on the franchisor to consent. Read on.