Workshop lease agreement

About this workshop lease

This comprehensive lease is for letting a stand-alone workshop, factory, warehouse or light industrial unit which does not share services with any other unit. The building could be used for anything: from a car repair garage to a machining workshop to an aircraft hangar.

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 lease agreements

There is no provision for service charge recovery in this document. If you need this, perhaps because the unit shares services with others or is part of an industrial estate, see Business lease: unit on industrial estate.

If the property will be used as offices, Self contained office lease agreement may be more appropriate.

If the property is mainly land, with plant or buildings, Business lease: land, either vacant or with plant or buildings may be more appropriate.

We sell another version of this lease, aimed at property developers, solicitors and surveyors, that contains some additional paragraphs covering more technical points. You might be interested in looking at: Industrial property lease: workshop, warehouse or factory 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
• security deposit agreement

If you are still not sure, there is more information at 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 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 Landlord and Tenant Act 1954

This document has been drawn so as to make it applicable to the vast majority of leasing scenarios without making it difficult to edit.

The law in this workshop 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

In balancing the codes with the law and the interest of the Landlord, we have followed the codes where reasonable, but have preferred the interest of the Landlord where there may be a difference.

Lease template contents

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

The contents include 26 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 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.