Commercial leases

Taking, granting or assigning business premises, with the risks explained first.

How we can help

Reviewing heads of terms before they harden into a lease
Negotiating repairing obligations, service charge and break provisions
Advising whether the lease is contracted out of security of tenure
Agreeing a schedule of condition to limit end-of-term liability
Acting on assignments, underlettings and licences to alter
Acting for landlords granting leases

Your solicitor

Dean Smith

Dean SmithSolicitor

What happens next

Send us the heads of terms or draft lease as early as you can.
We report on the commercial risks in plain terms, not just the legal ones.
We negotiate the amendments that matter and complete the transaction.

Fees for this work

Fixed fee quoted at the outset based on the transaction, with disbursements listed separately.

Common questions

What is a full repairing and insuring lease?

One where you take on responsibility for repair and insurance costs, and in a building of any age that liability can be substantial. It can oblige you to hand back premises in better condition than you took them, which is why a schedule of condition at the start is worth the modest cost.

What does contracted out mean?

That the parties have excluded the statutory right to renew at the end of the term, following a prescribed warning and declaration procedure. If your lease is contracted out you have no right to stay, and businesses regularly discover this in their final year.

Should we agree a schedule of condition?

If the premises are anything other than new, yes. It is a photographic and written record limiting your repairing obligation to the condition at the start. It costs little and routinely saves five figures at the end of a term.

Can we get out early?

Only if there is a break clause, and only if you satisfy its conditions precisely. Otherwise your options are assignment, underletting or negotiating a surrender — all of which usually require the landlord’s cooperation.

Tell us what's happened

Confidential, reviewed by a solicitor, answered within one working day.