Business lease: offices above shop

About this document

This is an uncomplicated business premises lease for a separate letting of office or storage space in a building shared with a shop or other workspace.

This short term lease should be used for letting offices or other rooms above a shop or other commercial premises. There is no provision for service charge recovery.

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 your tenants do share common services and facilities, our lease for a unit in parade of shops may be more appropriate.

If there is only one tenant in the whole building, you should use our lease for a self contained office building.

We also offer a lease for a retail unit or shop where the same tenant also rents office space within the same building. See our shop lease.

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:

• term of 1-7 years
• 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 relating to this document

Commercial property 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

We have followed the codes where reasonable, but have always preferred to favour the landlord if possible.

Contents

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

The contents include 27 provisions and 1 schedule 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
• 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: rights reserved

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.

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