Overage is the mechanism often used in property documents to protect a seller’s position in the event of a buyer achieving an uplift in the value of the land, or sales revenue above a certain agreed amount. Overage is in essence an additional payment over and above the specified sale price payable at the point of completion of a land transfer, which in the event a certain specified event occurs within an agreed period of time after completion of the land transfer, will become due from the buyer to the seller. Example The Property is sold with the benefit of a planning permission for 40 houses and the buyer secures a planning permission for 50 houses. Overage could be: a certain agreed figure per additional house authorised a proportion based on the additional square footage of authorised development a proportion of the actual uplift in sales proceeds. It is important to consider the ‘trigger’ for the payment to fall due – the seller may want the earliest possible timing, for example on the grant (or at least implementation) of an enhanced planning permission, but the buyer will say that it has not yet received any value to pay out overage from, so it might well prefer to pay out on completion of the sale of the final unit.