Evergreen (Contract Provision)

Walk through a pine forest on a crisp winter day. Notice the color of trees? Green. Still green, even though it's winter. Walk through a hardwood forest in winter (after the leaves all fall off). What do you see? Brown...trees are dormant, virtually lifeless until spring.

An evergreen contract provision is like those pine forests. Leaves never fall off. They never go dormant.

You sign a contract set to expire in two years. It has an evergreen contract provision. Which means that, at the end of the two years, it automatically renews. If no one does anything, it rolls over for another year (or another two years, or whatever the contract states). It keeps renewing in perpetuity until someone gives notice of termination.

Some leases are like this. They start with a 12-month term and then become automatic month-to-month renewals after that, until someone gives 30-day notice that they want to end the agreement.

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