UK · EU · US · InternationalWhat does a solicitor check in a commercial lease?
Five clauses decide almost every dispute that follows: the repairing obligation, the break conditions, the rent review basis, the alienation provisions and any guarantee you are asked to give. A review reads all of them against how you will actually occupy the premises, and reports in writing on what each will cost you over the term rather than on the day you sign.
Lease review and written risk report: from £750, agreed in writing before any work begins. No VAT. Advice by Santosh Pandey, Solicitor of England and Wales, SRA No. 641612. Handled entirely in writing. See the full lease fee schedule.
A commercial lease is the longest contract most small businesses ever sign, and the most asymmetric: the landlord's solicitor drafted it, and every silence favours their client. A review is not proofreading; it is finding the five clauses that will cost you money in year three.
Repair: the most expensive word is 'keep'
An obligation to 'keep the premises in repair' can mean putting them into a better state than you found them. On an older unit that is a five-figure exposure at exit. The fix is a schedule of condition and drafting that limits repair to that recorded state.
Break clauses that actually work
Break rights are routinely drafted to fail: conditions on vacant possession, on absolute compliance with covenants, on payments you did not know were due. A break you cannot lawfully exercise is decoration. The review tests the conditions against reality.
Rent review, alienation, guarantees
Upward-only reviews, assignment and subletting restrictions, and personal guarantees are where flexibility and personal risk hide. If a guarantee is demanded, the terms matter enormously, and if a lender is involved you may need independent legal advice on it.
What a fixed fee review covers
Our lease review from £750, no VAT, delivers a written report on exactly these points with negotiation recommendations, in days, not weeks. Heads of terms review from £450 catches problems even earlier, before the drafts exist.
Every matter above is delivered at a fixed fee agreed in writing before you pay, with replies within the hour in business hours. Send your enquiry.
Common questions
What does a solicitor check in a commercial lease?
The repairing obligation and its scope, the break clause conditions and whether they can actually be satisfied, the rent review basis and whether it is upwards only, the alienation provisions governing assignment and subletting, any guarantee or rent deposit, the service charge and its caps, insurance and reinstatement, and whether the lease is contracted out of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
How much does a commercial lease review cost?
From £750 for the review and written risk report, agreed in writing before any work begins. No VAT is charged. Negotiation with the landlord's solicitors is a separate tier on the fee schedule.
What is the most expensive clause in a commercial lease?
Usually the repairing obligation. A covenant to keep the premises in repair can require you to put them into better condition than you found them, because you cannot keep something in repair without first putting it in repair. A schedule of condition limits that, and it has to be agreed before completion.
Is my lease contracted out of the 1954 Act?
Check for a reference to sections 24 to 28 and to a health warning notice and declaration made before the lease was granted. If it is contracted out you have no statutory right to renew and the tenancy simply ends. If it is not, a landlord ending it must serve a section 25 notice.
How long does a review take?
Two to five working days from receiving the lease and the plan, and often faster. The written report sets out each clause, what it costs you and what to negotiate, ranked by what is worth fighting for.
Can you negotiate the lease as well?
Yes. Review and negotiation is the next tier on the schedule, where we conduct the negotiation with the landlord's solicitors in writing until terms are agreed. Preparing the deed itself and the Land Registry steps are reserved activities, so an authorised conveyancing solicitor is instructed for those.