Office lease agreement

About this office lease

This is a comprehensive and easy to use short term business lease for letting the whole of a commercial office building to a single tenant. The property should be self-contained, that is, it shouldn't share services or facilities with other properties owned by the same landlord.

The document has been drawn to help protect the landlord's interests as greatly as possible.

Similar business lease agreements

If you are letting an office building to multiple tenants (either by floor or by suite), you should use: Business lease: suite of offices.

We also offer a lease for a retail unit or shop where the tenant also rents office space within the same building. See Shop lease agreement.

Key features

Plain English is used throughout except where it is necessary to use legal terms common in this field of law.

The key features of this template can be summarised as:

• term of 5 years or under (often called a short term lease)
• standard guarantor
• options for transfer or assignment to another party
• sub-letting forbidden
• option to include a break clause for premature termination by the tenant
• a choice of options for rent reviews

This document has been drawn so as to make it applicable to the vast majority of leasing scenarios without making it difficult to edit.

The law in this officelease

This lease is regulated primarily by:

• the Landlord and Tenant Acts 1860-2005;
• in particular the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980; and
• the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1994

In balancing the codes with the law and the interest of the Landlord, we have followed the codes where reasonable, but have preferred the interest of the Landlord where there may be a difference.

Lease template contents

This commercial office lease is comprehensive, providing alternative choices for important decisions. The contents include 24 provisions and 2 schedules covering:

• rent: period, amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• tenant's positive obligations
• restrictions on tenant: prohibited activities on the property
• signs and advertisements
• assignment of the lease
• indemnities by the tenant
• security deposit
• insurance
• access for landlord
• guarantor
• termination: default notice by landlord; provision for premature termination (a break clause)
• forfeiture
• Schedule 1: rights reserved
• Schedule 2: draft agreement for a security deposit.