For agreements that last for 20 years or more, it is not unreasonable to expect that contract clauses will be modified from time to time. Amendments (including re-allocating risks) can potentially result from technical obsolescence e.g. tolling systems, new legal / political requirements e.g. health and safety, changes in service user demand (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.135; Edwards et al 2004: p.122), service provider under-performance (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.161) and from decisions to modify the length of agreements.
In the case of under-performance, this means that the public partner has the right to intervene if the quality of services provided by the operator fails to meet its obligations (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.161). This could arise from a breach of contract such as default (through continued acts of non-compliance) (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.148), a major default or in an emergency situation where the public partner may assume operational control for a period of time because the situation may be beyond the capability of the private partner to deal with it effectively (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.161) e.g. major flooding. With this said, it should be noted that force majeure events are uninsurable. The public partner may, however, provide for contract variations in these instances to give relief to its private partner because of unexpectedly high financial consequences (Partnerships Victoria 2001a: p.28). Moreover, financiers may impose similar caveats on their loans to the private consortium. The public partner must be aware of and plan for this possibility.