Maintenance and Support Agreement in United Kingdom: Template and Key Clauses (2026)

A maintenance and support agreement in the United Kingdom sets out how a software or technology supplier keeps a product working after delivery: fixing defects, handling support requests and providing updates. It usually sits alongside a licence or SaaS subscription, and its commercial heart is the service level agreement (SLA). UK law adds a specific control on how far the supplier can limit its liability. This guide sets out the law, the key clauses and a working skeleton. It is general information, not legal advice; confirm a live deal with a UK solicitor. ## What law governs maintenance and support in the UK? These agreements are governed by English contract law (or Scottish or Northern Irish law if chosen). Two statutes stand out for business contracts: - Where services are supplied, a term that the supplier will use reasonable care and skill is implied by statute (historically the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 for business-to-business supplies; the Consumer Rights Act 2015 covers consumer contracts). You cannot simply write this duty away in a consumer contract.

• The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) applies a reasonableness test to clauses that exclude or limit liability in business contracts, and makes some exclusions (such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence) ineffective. This is the single most important UK-specific point in a support agreement, because it governs whether your liability cap will actually hold up. State the governing law and jurisdiction clearly (for example, the laws of England and Wales). ## The UCTA reasonableness test on liability Under UCTA, a business cannot rely on a limitation or exclusion clause unless it is reasonable in the circumstances known to the parties when the contract was made. Courts look at the parties' bargaining power, whether the customer could have contracted elsewhere, and whether the limit is proportionate. A liability cap set at a token figure, or one that strips the customer of any meaningful remedy, risks being struck down. Draft the cap and exclusions carefully, keep them proportionate, and avoid blanket exclusions of all liability. ## Service levels, uptime and service credits For hosted software, define uptime precisely: the measurement window, what counts as downtime, and the exclusions (scheduled maintenance, force majeure, customer-caused outages, third-party platforms). Set a monthly availability target with service credits as the remedy if it is missed. - Service credits are a percentage of fees credited when a target is missed. State whether they are the sole remedy for SLA failures, keeping the UCTA reasonableness point in mind.
• Response and resolution times are tied to severity levels (for example Severity 1 critical down to Severity 4 cosmetic), each with a target response (acknowledgement) and a target resolution or workaround time.
• Make clear which targets are firm commitments and which are reasonable-efforts targets. ## Support scope, tiers and channels Set out support hours (business hours or 24x7), channels (portal, email, phone) and tiers (Level 1 triage, Level 2 technical, Level 3 engineering). Name the authorised contacts who may raise tickets, the customer cooperation expected, and what is out of scope (for example bespoke development), which is billed separately. ## Maintenance, versioning and end-of-life Maintenance usually means error correction plus updates. Separate included updates and patches from chargeable major upgrades or new modules. Set a versioning policy (how many prior versions are supported) and an end-of-life (EOL) or end-of-support notice period after which a version is no longer maintained. A clear EOL clause prevents disputes when the supplier retires an old release. ## Warranties, liability and data protection - Warranties: a limited warranty that the software performs materially in line with its documentation, with other warranties excluded so far as UCTA permits.
• Liability: a reasonable cap (often linked to fees) and exclusion of specified indirect losses, with the mandatory carve-outs (such as death or personal injury from negligence) left in place.
• Indemnities: usually an IP infringement indemnity from the supplier.
• Data protection: where personal data is processed, comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, normally through a data processing agreement that sets controller and processor roles, security measures and sub-processing. ## Key clauses and a simple drafting skeleton 1. Parties, date and relationship to the licence or subscription

2. Definitions (support, maintenance, downtime, severity levels)
3. Scope of maintenance and support, and exclusions
4. Support hours, channels and tiers
5. Service levels: uptime, response and resolution times
6. Service credits and remedy status
7. Updates, upgrades and versioning
8. End-of-life and end-of-support policy
9. Fees, renewal and price changes
10. Warranties and the reasonable-care duty
11. Limitation of liability (UCTA reasonable) and indemnities
12. Data protection (UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018)
13. Term, termination and effect of termination
14. Governing law and jurisdiction
15. Signatures Give the most attention to the SLA definitions, service credits and the liability cap, because UCTA will test whether the cap stands and the SLA decides what the customer actually gets. ## Keeping a portfolio of these contracts under control The hard part is rarely one agreement. It is tracking many of them at once: which service level or scope applies, when each renewal or notice period falls, which liability position you accepted, and whether a clause was quietly changed in the last draft. That work (drafting from a tuned template, flagging risky clauses per clause, tracking renewals and keeping versions straight) is what an AI contract workspace can hold in one place. Adira is built for this: one AI workspace tuned to your company and built on Claude, with per-clause risk review, plain-English clause editing and a live activity timeline. It is India-first today with other jurisdictions on its roadmap, so verify local depth before relying on it for United Kingdom law. More at Adira. The law above stands on its own. ## Bottom line A UK maintenance and support agreement is governed by English (or Scottish or Northern Irish) contract law, with an implied duty of reasonable care and skill and, crucially, the UCTA 1977 reasonableness test on liability clauses. The deal turns on the SLA (precise uptime, severity-based response and resolution targets, service credits), a clear versioning and end-of-life policy, UK GDPR compliance, and a liability cap drafted to survive UCTA. Draft the cap proportionately and take UK legal advice before signing a real deal.