Office lease agreement: self contained building

About this lease

This lease should be used where you have a single tenant renting a detached building as offices.

It is easy to edit, comprehensive in coverage of important issues, and has been drawn to prefer the interest of the landlord where possible, rather than that of the tenant.

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

Similar agreements

We sell similar versions of this lease if:

• you are letting the building to multiple tenants
• the office is situated on a business park and you require provisions for service charge recovery
• the lease is for a shop or retail unit with an office

We sell another version that contains some additional paragraphs covering more technical points. You might be interested in looking at this lease agreement if you need any of the following:

• 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
• 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
• opt-out of Sections 24-28 of the LTA 1954

The law in this document

Business 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

Contents

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

It contains 28 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
• security of tenure excluded
• Schedule 1: rights reserved
• Schedule 2: 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 LTA and there is little legislation or case law. 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.

For the Scottish version of this agreement please select "Scotland" from the list in top box.