Restaurant lease agreement

About this restaurant lease

This agreement should be used to let a food retail unit such as a restaurant, cafe, delicatessen, or fast food outlet. It may be part of a parade of other shops owned by other landlords, or it may be stand-alone.

The restaurant or cafe may have additional space used by the tenant for other business purposes, such as offices or storage. This lease does not cover additional space let for residential use by the tenant, although Net Lawman does provide one that does (see below).

The lease has been drawn to prefer the interest of the landlord rather than the tenant.

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

Similar commercial lease agreements

If the property will be used as a standard shop, use Shop lease agreement or Business lease: shop in parade. The latter contains service charge recovery provisions.

If the tenant will also live at the property, use Mixed use lease: shop in parade with residential space.

We sell a similar version of this lease for more general retail properties, aimed at developers, solicitors and surveyors, that contains some additional paragraphs covering more technical points. You might be interested in looking at: Commercial property lease: retail unit or shop 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

If you are still not sure, there is more information in our article: Which Net Lawman business 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 business lease 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 Landlord and Tenant Act 1954
• schedule covering use of a commercial kitchen

The law in this restaurant lease

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;

Document contents

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

The contents include 26 provisions and 3 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
• Schedule 3: kitchen and cooking equipment

Scottish version of this lease

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.