Judge Law Solicitors Ealing, West London, London

A busi­ness prop­er­ty lease or com­mer­cial lease is a legal­ly bind­ing con­tract between a busi­ness own­er and the own­er of the property.

These doc­u­ments are a good deal more com­pli­cat­ed than res­i­den­tial leas­es, because the lease is usu­al­ly heav­i­ly cus­tomised to the indi­vid­ual sit­u­a­tion. The lease terms and con­di­tions need to be very care­ful­ly read to make sure that they match the needs of your busi­ness, as any mis­takes at the begin­ning could make or break your new business.

Yes, lease terms are often nego­tiable. The spe­cif­ic terms or restric­tions which may be up for nego­ti­a­tion include the rent amount, rent increas­es, the dura­tion of the lease, the mod­i­fi­ca­tions you can make to the prop­er­ty and whether you can trans­fer or assign the lease.

This is hard to answer with­out know­ing your spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion and your busi­ness require­ments. Some of the com­mon things we find we need to dis­cuss with clients include:

• If you’re a new busi­ness, check that the length of the lease suits you, as many land­lords pre­fer to lock in a longer lease.
• There are sev­er­al ways to cal­cu­late rental increas­es so make sure you under­stand and agree to the one cho­sen by your lessor.
• Read the sec­tion on prop­er­ty improve­ments very care­ful­ly as it should set out who can make changes, who pays for the mod­i­fi­ca­tions and whether you have to return the prop­er­ty to its orig­i­nal con­di­tion at the end of the lease.
• Make sure the lease includes all of the areas you expect to use includ­ing bath­rooms, park­ing areas and com­mon areas.
• Be care­ful that the lease does­n’t stop you from erect­ing signs in cer­tain areas.

Please seek legal advice before you make any com­mit­ments, includ­ing sign­ing an offer, pay­ing a deposit or mov­ing any­thing you own into the property.

First, find your lease doc­u­ments and read them care­ful­ly, mak­ing sure that you com­plete­ly under­stand the legal terms and conditions.

Sec­ond­ly, make sure you under­stand your legal rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties and those of your landlord.

Then con­sid­er the options, which include nego­ti­a­tion, medi­a­tion, and court action.