Commercial Leases
On this page you will find a selection of leases
suitable for commercial premises. These leases will download as a pack of
documents and will contain the following -
Where security of tenure is not excluded
-
-
Lease
-
Section 25 notice to terminate the lease if the
landlord will oppose the grant of a new lease
-
Section 25 notice to terminate the lease if the
landlord will not object to the grant of a new lease
Where security of tenure is excluded
-
-
Lease
-
Guide to procedure on
excluding security of tenure
-
form of notice to be served
-
simple declaration
-
statutory declaration
If you do not find the lease you are looking for on this
page then use our
Lease Selector - we currently have around 70 different
leases to choose from. If you do not see what you want then send us an email
with your requirements and we will tell you if we can assist.
All our leases contain the Land Registry Prescribed
Clauses (which were made compulsory from 19th June 2006). If you would like a brief summary of the clauses found
in our leases then please click
here
Commercial Lease - whole of building
– no service charge (including form of Notice to Quit)
This lease is suitable for a fairly short-term lease of a commercial building
where the whole of the building is being let. It does not contain any service
provisions. It provides for the Landlord to insure the building and for the
Tenant to reimburse the cost. It does not require the Tenant to carry out
repairs to the building except such as are needed to ensure it is handed back
at the end of the lease in as good a state of repair and condition as when the
lease is entered into. You can choose either an assignable or none assignable
version of the lease. You should bear in mind
that in many cases the tenant will acquire ‘security of tenure’
Consider whether you
also need a
rent deposit
Purchase Price - £30.00 (including form of Notice to Quit - or the
notice can be bought separately - see
below)
The
document will download as a Zip file. Once downloaded it will unzip to a Word
document
|
A shareware version of
WinZip is freely available from many places. If you wish you can download it
by clicking the WinZip button at the side of this page
|
|
Lease of Whole Building - none assignable. This contains
an absolute prohibition against the Tenant assigning the Lease i.e. it
is personal to the named Tenant |
|
|
As above but excluding security of
tenure |
|
|
Lease of Whole Building - assignable. This means the
Tenant will have the right to sell the lease to some third party
-provided that the Landlord first gives its consent -such consent
not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed |
|
|
As above but excluding security of
tenure |
|
Commercial
Lease - part of building –
including service charge (including form of Notice to
Quit)
This lease is suitable for a fairly short-term lease of part of a larger
building. This could be an individual unit in a building or a single building
on a small industrial estate or similar. It contains service charge provisions
requiring the tenant to contribute towards the costs that the landlord incurs
in maintaining and managing the building or
estate of which the leased
premises form part. The services that the landlord can charge out as part of
the service charge are listed in the lease and are quite extensive but no
obligation is specifically imposed on the Landlord to provide these – so the
landlord can choose which of the services he provides without having to alter
the wording of the lease. Nonetheless if you wish to alter the list of
services so it is specific to your building then there is nothing to stop you
doing this. The exception to this is the building insurance which the landlord
is obliged to arrange (subject to contribution towards the premium by the
Tenant)
The
lease does not require the Tenant to carry out repairs to the building except
such as are needed to ensure it is handed back at the end of the lease in as
good a state of repair and condition as when the lease is entered into. You can choose either an assignable or none assignable version
of the lease. You should bear in mind that in many cases
the tenant will acquire ‘security of tenure’ –see below for more details
If
you wish to assign an existing lease then follow this
link
Consider
whether you also need a
rent deposit
Purchase Price - £30.00 (including form of Notice to Quit- or the notice can be bought separately - see
below)
The
document will download as a Zip file. Once downloaded it will unzip to a Word
document
|
A shareware version of
WinZip is freely available from many places. If you wish you can download it
by clicking the WinZip button at the side of this page
|
|
Lease of Part Building - none assignable. This contains an
absolute prohibition against the Tenant assigning the Lease i.e. it is personal
to the named Tenant |
|
|
As above but excluding security of
tenure |
|
|
Lease of Part Building - assignable. This means the Tenant
will have the right to sell the lease to some third party -provided that
the Landlord first gives its consent -such consent not to be unreasonably
withheld or delayed |
|
|
As above but excluding security of
tenure |
|
If you are unsure which lease
you would like then try following our
Lease Selector
- this will ask
you a few simple questions and then suggest which lease template would most
suit you. These include those mentioned above and many more. They each cost £30.
If you want something that is
not covered here then feel free to email us and ask if we help. We
may need to ask you some questions and will then tell you if we can help and
what it would cost.
If there is an existing lease that is about to expire and the
parties desire to enter into a new one then one way of approaching this is to
grant an extension to the existing lease. Click
here for more information
The Tenant should give
consideration as to whether they will need to complete a Stamp Duty Land Tax
return and register the lease at the Land Registry. Click
here for more information.
Security of Tenure
Generally speaking a tenant of business property acquires
what is called ‘security of tenure’. This means that when the expiry date
of the lease is passed the lease does not end but rather is continued by
operation of the law. The tenant is usually referred to as ‘holding over’.
The lease can only be terminated by one of the procedures that are laid down
in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. The reasoning behind the legislation is
to protect the goodwill that a business tenant builds up by running a business
from certain premises.
In order for a lease to acquire security of tenure
certain conditions need to be satisfied –
-
The
lease must be for a fixed term or for a periodic term. (consider
a tenancy at will)
-
The
premises must be occupied for business purposes
-
The
premises must be occupied by the tenant
If a landlord wishes to terminate a business tenancy
then he has to give notice in a prescribed form to the tenant. This is a
notice served under Section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 - as amended
by The Regulatory Reform (Business Tenancies) (England and Wales) Order 2003. This
notice has to comply with certain requirements
In order to be valid a
Section 25 notice must:
-
be served by the competent landlord (if the
immediate landlord is the freeholder then that is the competent landlord –
if the immediate landlord has a leasehold interest then he is only the
competent landlord if his lease has more than 14 months left to run);
-
be served on the tenant or all of joint
tenants;
-
be in the prescribed form, or one
substantially to the like effect - there is a different form dependant on
whether or not the landlord intends to oppose the grant of a new tenancy;
-
state a date of termination which is no
earlier than the contractual term date or a date upon which the landlord
could have terminated the tenancy by a notice to quit;
-
give a period of notice which is no more
than 12 months nor less than 6 months before the specified date of
termination;
-
relate to the whole of the demised premises;
There are only certain grounds upon which the landlord
can oppose an application by the tenant for a new lease. Some of these are
based upon grounds that the tenant has not paid the rent on time or there has
been some other substantial breach of the lease terms. If these can be
established then the tenant will be barred from acquiring a new tenancy. There
are other grounds that are not due to the tenants default – such as the
landlord wanting the property back for his own occupation or to redevelop –
if these grounds can be established then again the tenant would be barred from
acquiring a new tenancy though the landlord would have to pay compensation.
More details about these grounds of opposition are to be found on the Section
25 Notice
For
more information about termination of a business tenancy please see
this page
Please note that the form and
content of the Section
25 Notice was been altered with effect from 1st June 2004. If you have a form
based on the law predating that date then it will no longer be valid.
Both
forms of Section 25 Notice are supplied as part of our form of lease, however,
they can also be purchased separately if you wish for £5 each
|
Notice to terminate Business Lease - Section 25 Notice
- where Landlord does not oppose the grant of a new tenancy |
|
|
Notice to terminate Business Lease - Section 25 Notice
- where Landlord does intend to oppose the grant of a new tenancy |
|
If
you wish to assign an existing lease then follow this
link
Most
leases of business premises do benefit from security of tenure. Although there
are exceptions, the only safe way before 1st June 2004 of avoiding a tenant acquiring security of
tenure was to obtain an order of the County Court excluding the proposed lease
from the operation of Sections 24 -28 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
That though changed with effect from 1st June 2004 when The
Regulatory Reform (Business Tenancies) (England and Wales) Order 2003
came into force - click
here
for more information. The requirement for a Consent Order
was abolished and replaced with a 'health warning' which should be given
to a tenant 14 days before the lease is entered into.
If you have more questions
then click this
link for some frequently asked
questions about leases
On the grant of a lease the Landlord or, on an assignment (transfer) of a lease
the seller, is required to provide free of charge to the tenant or buyer an
Energy Performance Certificate.
The
documents downloaded from this web site will be in the form of a Zip file. Once downloaded it will unzip to a Word
document. You will need a zip utility to unzip the document - Windows XP
contains a built in utility. Alternatively shareware versions suitable for
unzipping a file can be obtained from the Internet - for example, click the Winzip
button at the side of this page.
The
documents available on this site have been prepared for use in England &
Wales. They may not be valid if used in other areas.
