Property & Premises

Commercial landlord and tenant, and building disputes.

Premises are usually a business’s largest fixed commitment after payroll, and commercial leases are considerably less forgiving than residential ones. The protections tenants have at home largely do not apply.

We act for businesses taking, holding and leaving premises, and for landlords letting them. The work ranges from reviewing heads of terms before anything is signed, to arguing about the state of the building after everyone has left.

The most valuable point at which to involve us is the first one. A repairing obligation accepted at the outset can cost tens of thousands at the end of the term.

Taking a lease

Rent is the obvious term and rarely the expensive one. Repairing obligations, service charge provisions, break clause conditions and whether the lease is contracted out of security of tenure all matter more over a ten year term. We review heads of terms before they harden into a lease.

Security of tenure

Business tenancies are protected by statute unless the parties have contracted out following the prescribed procedure. Whether your lease is protected determines whether you have a right to a new one at the end of the term — and it is a question far too many businesses first ask in their final year.

Break clauses

Break clauses fail more often than they succeed, usually on a technicality: notice served late, served on the wrong party, or conditions about vacant possession and rent payment not strictly satisfied. Courts apply these conditions strictly. Take advice months before the break date, not weeks.

Dilapidations

At the end of a lease a landlord will typically serve a schedule of dilapidations claiming the cost of putting the premises back into repair. These claims are frequently overstated, and the recoverable sum is capped by reference to the actual loss in the value of the landlord’s interest. They are negotiable, and rarely negotiated well without advice.

Review before signing

Heads of terms are far cheaper to change than a signed lease.

Break clauses are strict

Most failed breaks fail on a technicality, not the substance.

Dilapidations are negotiable

Schedules are routinely overstated and capped by law.

Contracted out?

Whether your lease is protected changes everything at term end.

How we can help

Commercial building and construction disputes

Work that was defective, delayed, or cost far more than agreed.

Commercial landlord and tenant

Commercial landlord and tenant disputes, from either side.

Commercial leases

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

Lease renewals and dilapidations

The end of a lease — renewing it, or arguing about the state you left it in.

Common questions

Questions people ask us

Do we have a right to renew our lease?

Only if the lease is protected. Business tenancies carry statutory renewal rights unless the parties contracted out at the start following the prescribed warning and declaration procedure. Check your lease now rather than in your final year.

We want to exercise a break clause.

Read the conditions carefully and start early. Breaks commonly require notice in a specific form, given a specific period in advance, with all rent paid and vacant possession given. Courts enforce these conditions strictly, and a failed break means another full term.

The landlord has sent a huge dilapidations schedule.

Schedules are opening positions, and are frequently overstated. What the landlord can actually recover is limited by the loss in value of their interest — if they are redeveloping the building, that may be very little. These claims settle at a fraction of the sum first demanded far more often than not.

Who you'll be working with

Dean Smith

Solicitor

Landlord and tenant matters and employment issues

Harri Williams

Legal Secretary

Paige Howell

Paralegal

Safa Akhtar