When is a licence not a licence … when it’s a lease!

May 21st 2020 | commercial property
Short term tenants of commercial premises may sometimes be allowed occupation under the terms of a licence, or even a tenancy at will.  This is an informal way of granting occupation of whole or part of a commercial property, usually for a short period of time, without entering into a read more...

How Do I Exercise A Break Clause?

March 13th 2020 | commercial property
Within the terms of a commercial property lease there is sometimes an opportunity to prematurely determine a lease term before it has come to its contractual end.  This is known as a “break clause” or “early termination provision”. The terms of the break clause within the lease will determine how read more...

Code for Leasing Business Premises updated by RICS

March 5th 2020 | commercial property
In February 2020, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (“RICS”) launched the Code for leasing business premises in England and Wales, which will officially come into effect on 1st September 2020 (“Lease Code 2020”). The Lease Code 2020 will replace the existing 2007 Code for leasing business premises, which was read more...

Commercial Property: Bank of Mum and Dad?

February 13th 2020 | commercial property
There is perhaps a striking similarity between supporting one’s offspring for a lifestyle they cannot afford and being a tenant of commercial premises.  Frequently commercial leases oblige the tenant to be responsible for certain costs and outgoings on the property.  Obvious provisions such as paying annual rent and a contribution read more...

Three is not Always a Crowd for a Groupie

December 4th 2019 | commercial property
Whereas it is not unusual for a commercial lease to contain provisions dealing with underletting, is an underlease always required when you are sharing occupation of a commercial building, or considering letting a tenant share occupation of a building you may own?  The answer is not necessarily.  It is quite read more...

Thinking of Breaking Up?

November 12th 2019 | commercial property
A relationship between a landlord and a tenant is (usually) governed by a commercial lease which the parties have entered into at the same time as the tenant takes occupation of the property.  Such commercial relationships are, hopefully, usually harmonious.  But what happens when one party wants to end the read more...

Side Letter Leggings or Full Denim Deed?

October 29th 2019 | commercial property
For those of you who are fashionista’s of Vivienne Westwood’s global empire I imagine that as a landlord one could only dream of the prestige of being one or more of her landlords (consider one’s image daaaahrling) and the unimaginative wealth of interest it would generate in the property investment read more...

Do I Need a Commercial Lease?

October 24th 2019 | commercial property
Although the risks of not having a commercial lease in place to formally document a tenant’s occupation is probably more of a risk from the landlord’s perspective there are a number of reasons why both a landlord and a tenant should enter into a formal lease: Certainty of terms – read more...

Brexit Stands as an Unviable Reason to Break a Commercial Lease

July 24th 2019 | commercial property
Landlords – heave a sigh of relief, tenants – look the other way. Following from my earlier article on this subject, the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) has announced that it will not be appealing the High Court’s ruling which determined that Brexit would not frustrate its 25 year lease.  Instead, read more...

Can You Break Your Commercial Lease Because of Brexit?

March 27th 2019 | commercial property
The short answer is NO – at least, not yet. Here’s why: This very question has just been answered by High Court judge, Mr Justice Smith, in the recent case of Canary Wharf (BP4) T1 Ltd & Ors v European Medicines Agency. This case concerns the ongoing battle between the read more...

Informal Oral Contract Costs Construction Company Almost £7 Million

March 18th 2019 | commercial property
Informal oral contracts remain sadly commonplace despite any number of examples of them leading to costly disputes, in one case, a construction company that allowed another to use its name in tendering for jobs ended up losing almost £7 million. One of the company’s senior employees was an acquaintance of read more...
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