Business lease agreements

Our business lease agreements integrate the draftsman's 20-years of experience of leasing commercial property with a comprehensive legal framework that provides excellent protection for the landlord and a wide range of options to suit almost all requirements. All our business lease agreements include the provisions you would expect as standard, such as one for a guarantor. Full guidance notes with each document explain your options.

Office lease agreement

This is an easy to use lease for letting the whole of an office building to a single tenant for business purposes. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor provision; break provision; rent review options; draft agreement for a security deposit; options for assignment; no sub-letting; no management or service charge.

Business lease: suite of offices

This is a short term lease for letting part of a multi-tenant building for offices or business purposes. The building could be a dedicated multi-let office or a mixed use property where the space let using this lease is for general business (e.g. an office over a shop run by another tenant). Features: term under 5 years; guarantor provision; break provision; rent review options; draft agreement for a security deposit; options for assignment; no sub-letting.

Business lease: offices above shop

This is an easy to use business property lease for letting office or storage space above a shop or other space. The tenants in the building shouldn't share any services - the agreement doesn't provide for service charge recovery. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor provision; break provision; rent review options; options for assignment; no sub-letting; no management or service charge.

Mixed use lease: shop in parade with residential space

This is a comprehensive mixed use lease for letting a shop or other retail unit that also has residential space used by the tenant, e.g. a shop with a flat above. The shop could be used for any purpose: retail of goods, restaurant, cafe or services. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; service charge provision; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; option for assignment; sub-letting not allowed; draft agreement for security deposit.

Business lease: shop in parade

This lease should be used for letting a single shop or retail unit in a multi-tenant parade owned by the same landlord. The shop could be used for any purpose: retail of goods, restaurant, cafe or sale of services (e.g. estate agency or PC repair). Any upper parts of the building are let separately. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; service charge provision; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; option for assignment; sub-letting not allowed; draft agreement for security deposit.

Workshop lease agreement

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This is a comprehensive and easy to use lease for letting a workshop, factory, warehouse or other light industrial unit. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor provision; break provision; rent review options; options for assignment; no sub-letting; no management or service charge.

Business lease: land, either vacant or with plant or buildings

This lease should be used to let land for any business use, for example, plant or equipment storage or a scrap yard. The document allows the tenant use of any buildings or items of plant on the land. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; options for assignment and sub-letting; draft agreement for security deposit.

Business lease: unit on industrial park

Lease for a unit, such as a workshop, factory, depot or warehouse on an industrial estate or a business park. The lease covers the use of shared services on the park or estate, such as security, access roads, signs and parking. Features: term under 5 years; guarantor provision; break provision; rent review options; draft agreement for a security deposit; options for assignment; no sub-letting.

Shop lease agreement

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This shop lease has been drawn for letting a retail unit that does not require provisions for service charge recovery. The nature of the property could vary: it could stand by itself, or could be in a row of other shops. It may be just a retail space or it may have offices or other business space attached as well. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; option for assignment; sub-letting not allowed; draft agreement for security deposit.

Restaurant lease agreement

This letting agreement is for a property that has a commercial kitchen. Most commonly, this lease would be used for a restaurant, cafe, delicatessen or fast food outlet. The lease allows for the property to have space used for other business purposes as well. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; option for assignment; sub-letting not allowed; draft agreement for security deposit; schedule covering kitchen and cooking equipment.

Lease agreement: pub or restaurant with flat over

This is a comprehensive lease for letting a pub or licensed restaurant with a flat or maisonette above for the tenant to live. The premises may be detached or connected. Features are: service charge provision; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; option for assignment; sub-letting not allowed; draft agreement for security deposit.

Car park lease agreement

This is a version of our land lease, tailored specifically for car parks and lorry parks. The lease allows for use of any buildings or infrastructure on the land. Features: short term: 1 to 5 years; guarantor; break provision; rent review options; options for assignment and sub-letting; draft agreement for security deposit.

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If the document isn’t right for your circumstances for any reason, just tell us and we’ll refund you in full immediately.

Written in plain English

We avoid legal terminology unless necessary. Plain English makes our documents easy to understand, easy to edit and more likely to be accepted.

Guidance notes included

You don’t need legal knowledge to use our documents. We explain what to edit and how in the guidance notes included at the end of the document.

Support from our legal team

Email us with questions about editing your document. Use our Lawyer Assist service if you’d like our legal team to check your document will do as you intend.

Up to date with the latest law

Our documents comply with the latest relevant law. Our lawyers regularly review how new law affects each document in our library.

Introduction

In a lease, the business of the tenant is less important than the type of property being let. So, our agreements differ with each other through the inclusion or exclusion of terms relating to features of the building, such as those dealing with rights to display signs, rather than by who the tenant may be.

Choose the right agreement by selecting the one whose description most closely matches that of your premises.

These are full agreements, drawn to a higher standard than most solicitors would provide. Despite the breadth of options we provide, editing is straightforward, regardless of whether you have prior experience or not of this type of legal agreement.

We provide extensive drafting notes explaining each paragraph, and we send you a guide on how to deal generally with editing and completion.

What is a commercial lease?

A commercial lease is a lease between a landlord and tenant for retail, office space or industrial use.

Commercial leases are signed between the parties when a business rents a commercial property for the reason to conduct business from that property. It gives the business tenant rights to use the property for business purposes or commercial activities for a lease term in return for the rent and both parties have the rights and obligations during the term of the lease.

What terms are included in a commercial lease agreement?

Commercial leases contains:

The terms of the commercial lease agreement are negotiable as they need to reflect the usage of the property in terms of the tenant’s business. Considering we provide documents relating to all kinds of commercial property, be it a shop, an industrial unit or office buildings, the lease will cover everything relevant to your situation.

The law in these lease documents

In Ireland, the governing law of business leases is regulated primarily by:

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.

Traditionally, it is the landlord who puts his draft to his proposed tenant. He is the owner of the land, so he can decide the terms on which he will let it. Statute law redresses this imbalance of power, but our leases have been drawn to prefer the interest of the landlord rather than the tenant.
These documents are not suitable for residential leases. These documents are only suitable for commercial space and commercial tenants.

What checks should I carry out before finalising the commercial lease?

You should ensure that all your requirements are met before you enter into a commercial lease agreement with the landlord. Some important inquiries are:

What is a break clause in commercial lease agreements?

Otherwise known as a “premature termination”, a break clause is a provision for the tenant to give written notice at some particular time to terminate the lease then or shortly afterwards. In that way, the tenant has the benefit of as long a lease as he chooses, but without the risk that he will want to move on and be stuck with the rent payment. Whether or not a landlord is prepared to accept a break clause depends on the importance of the transaction generally. A landlord presented with a break clause proposal should consider the reduction in the capital value of his property resulting from the break clause and ask for a higher rent to compensate.

Do I have to register the commercial lease agreement?

Yes, the tenant has an obligation to register their commercial lease agreements with the Property Services Regulatory Authority under the Property Services (Regulations) Act 2011. In addition to this, the tenant also has to provide:

Can I grant a sublease under my lease?

You can grant a sublease if your lease agreement allows you to do so as it is better to have written consent of the landlord. A sublease is a lease between a head tenant and subtenant, usually allowed to exist under an original tenancy agreement. From a commercial standpoint, it is important for the investor that a sublease does not undermine the original tenancy so it will contain detailed provisions relevant to a sublease.

We offer two subleases. This version will be used for most situations. The alternative is for circumstances where the head landlord has required deeper and more detailed involvement in the relationship between himself and the new subtenant. You may be interested to look at this document.

Can the terms of the lease be changed once it is signed?

Yes, the landlord and tenant can mutually agree to change the lease terms. You can use our deed of variation to change the terms of your lease. Like the original lease, this agreement is between the landlord and the tenant. The lease can be for any type of property but you should keep in mind that if you want to make a change to the core terms of the lease, for example, to add an additional property or an additional tenant then you should not use this document.

Can I renew my commercial lease?

The Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980 gives an automatic right of renewal to leases of more than 5 years. A lease of under five years is called a short-term lease. If the landlord renews the tenancy after the expiry of the short-term lease then the lease will be automatically qualified as long-term lease. In the case of leases that are created for less than five years, there is no automatic right of renewal at the end of the term and a common lease for say four years and nine months, ensures that the landlord can take vacant possession at the end of the term. Although there is clearly more flexibility for a tenant (especially in the case of a start-up business), there also tends to be more frequent rent reviews and less incentives can be negotiated with the landlord.