Business lease

About this lease agreement

This business lease has been drawn to let a retail unit in a parade of shops owned by the same landlord. Tenants are likely to share some facilities and services, and this agreement allows for service charge recovery and use of shared facilities between tenants. The shop could be for any purpose, such as retail of goods, restaurant or cafe, or service provision such as PC repair or estate agency.

The shop may or may not have additional space used by the tenant for other business purposes, such as offices or storage. This lease does not cover additional space used for residential use by the tenant, although Net Lawman does provide one that does (see below).

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

Similar commercial lease agreements

• If a restaurant, cafe or fast food outlet will be operated from the property, Restaurant lease agreement may be more appropriate. This lease contains specific clauses for commercial kitchens and food retail.
• If you don't require service charge recovery provisions, use Shop lease agreement.
• If the tenant will also live at the property, Mixed use lease: shop in parade with residential space may be more appropriate.
• If the property will be used as an office (rather than a shop), Office lease agreement may be more appropriate.

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 lease 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 shoplease

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.

Document contents

This shop lease is comprehensive, providing alternative choices for important decisions.

The contents include 25 provisions and 3 schedules covering:

• rent: period, amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• tenant's positive obligations
• service charge recovery
• 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: the service charge
• Schedule 2: rights reserved
• Schedule 3: draft agreement for a security deposit