Business lease

About this document

This is a lease to let a unit on an industrial estate or business park for use classes E, B2, B8. The use could be for any purpose, such as a workshop, factory, depot or warehouse. The unit could be one of a block under one roof or a stand-alone building.

The agreement includes the use of shared services on the park or estate, such as security, access roads, signs and parking and many other practical points. Full service charge provisions are included.

Provided the term of the lease is seven years or less, it does not need to be registered at the Land Registry.

Similar agreements

If you want to let a stand-alone unit with no common services provided, you could look at our lease for a workshop.

If you require an agreement that contains less commonly used provisions, you might be interested in looking at this one, which contains:

• provisions for sub-letting
• provisions for an authorised guarantee agreement
• extensive landlord's warranties
• references to land registration for leases with a term greater than 7 years
• prescribed lease clauses

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:

• standard guarantor
• service charge provisions - specifically written for a unit that is part of an industrial estate or business park
• 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
• a draft agreement for a security deposit has also been included
• opt-out of Sections 24-28 of the LTA 1954

The law in this agreement

Commercial lease law is regulated primarily by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, amended many times.

Account has also been taken of:

• the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995
• the Regulatory Reform Regulations 2003
• the Joint Committee's Code for Leasing Business Premises
• the RICS' Code on Service Charges

In balancing the codes with the law and the interest of the Landlord, we have followed the codes where reasonable, but have always preferred the interest of the Landlord.

Contents

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

The contents include 30 provisions and 3 schedules covering:

• rent: period, amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• tenant’s warranties for authority
• landlord’s warranties
• tenant's positive obligations
• restrictions on tenant: prohibited activities on the property
• signs and advertisements
• goods and vehicles
• 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
• security of tenure excluded
• Schedule 1: the service charge
• Schedule 2: rights reserved
• Schedule 3: draft agreement for a security deposit

Scottish version

The law governing commercial leases is substantially different in Scotland as compared with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland there is no equivalent to the Landlord and Tenant Acts. There is little legislation or case law relating to leases in Scotland. So the version we have drawn for our Scottish user is common law based.

On registration of leases in Scotland, only commercial leases for longer than 20 years must be registered in the Land Register of Scotland. However, the lease is often registered in the Books of Council and Session in Edinburgh.