Land lease

About this document

This is a lease to let a plot of land. The land could be used for any purpose, from plant or equipment storage, to a scrap yard. The agreement allows for existing buildings or items of plant to be included within the lease. As examples, these might include site offices, storage buidlings, lifting equipment or fuel tanks.

The lease has been designed for use by property professionals who have bought the land as an investment, and as such, it aims to maximise the capital value and to provide acceptable security to a financial institution.

We offer a tailored version of this lease for leting land for use as a vehicle park.

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 are:

• term between 1 and 30 years
• guarantor
• assignment and sub-letting
• break provision
• rent review options
• opt-out of Sections 24-28 of the LTA 1954 (to exclude security of tenure)
• draft authorised guarantee agreement
• template for a security deposit agreement

If you are not familiar with leases, you may wish to look at the simpler standard lease for letting land. This contains fewer of the technical provisions, fewer landlord's warranties, no references to prescribed lease clauses and no options for sub-letting.

Within the extensive guidance notes to this lease, we have provided a discussion on use of security deposit agreement and a template for such an agreement.

We have also included the forms required to exclude security of tenure. These include the prescribed notices to be given to the tenant 14 days before the new lease is created, a declaration of a new lease, and the statutory declaration if less than 14 days notice is given.

The law in this document

Commercial lease law is regulated primarily by the LTA 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 comply with the codes where they are reasonable and not detrimental to the landlord's interest.

Contents

The contents include 29 provisions and 3 schedules covering:

• rent: amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• alterations with landlord's consent
• tenant's positive obligations
• restrictions on tenant
• goods and vehicles
• assignment
• sub-letting
• preconditions of development
• indemnities by the tenant and warranties by the landlord
• land registration
• security deposit
• insurance
• access for landlord
• guarantor
• termination: default notice by landlord; provision for premature termination
• forfeiture
• security of tenure excluded
• schedules
• Prescribed notices to be sent to tenant

If the term is for more than seven years, it must be registered with the Land Registry. We provide prescribed lease clauses for download free of charge that can be added easily into the document. There is no need to use these if your intended term is seven years or shorter.