Incorporation by Reference

"The method of making one document of any kind become a part of another separate document by referring to the former in the latter, and declaring that the former shall be taken and considered as a part of the latter the same as if it were fully set out therein."

[Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, p.690.]

It is not uncommon for contracts to remain short and readable by ensuring that a great deal of the meat-and-potatoes clauses are found elsewhere; it is a good way of avoiding contracts that are unnecessarily long and detailed. The ones that most Canadians will be familiar with are "Standard Charge Terms" in a mortgage. The mortgage itself will only be a page or so -- of very fine print -- but it will have a box indicating which Standard Charge Terms apply; a "Standard Charge Terms" is the often massive document detailing each and every right and obligation under a mortgage: interest calculations, prepayment rights, power of sale, and so on.


NOTE:
PDFs of what appear to be all the currently used Standard Charge Terms have been very helpfully posted by the Orillia Law firm of Lewis Downey Tornosky Lassaline & Timpano, PC, and can be found here.