Yes. A commercial lease is a legally binding document that will govern your occupation of the property for its full term, and it’s rarely as simple as the headline rent and length suggest. Alongside the lease itself, you may also need to review and sign related documents, such as:
- A Licence to Alter — required if you plan to carry out works or alterations to the property, setting out what you can change and any conditions attached (such as reinstating the property at lease end).
- A Schedule of Condition — a formal record of the property’s condition at the start of the lease, usually attached as evidence to limit your repairing liability to that existing condition, rather than an implied standard of full repair.
One clause worth understanding in particular relates to security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. Most business tenancies benefit from statutory protection under the Act, giving you the right to request a new lease when the current one ends. Landlords and tenants can agree to exclude (“contract out of”) this protection, and where a new lease is being granted outside the Act, there’s a specific legal process to follow — including a formal warning notice to the tenant and a signed declaration, which in many cases must be witnessed by a solicitor. Getting this process wrong can affect whether the exclusion is valid, so it isn’t something to handle without proper advice.
Beyond these specific documents, a solicitor will also check the finer detail that’s easy to overlook — repairing obligations, break clauses and their conditions, rent review mechanisms, assignment and subletting rights, and any restrictions on how you can use the property. Because your business will be bound to these terms for the life of the lease, it’s worth treating the legal review as a core part of the process, not a formality to rush through once terms are agreed.
As commercial property consultants, we can advise on the property, market terms and negotiation strategy, and work alongside your solicitor throughout — but we’re not able to provide legal advice ourselves. If you don’t already have a solicitor experienced in commercial property, we’re happy to point you towards firms we work with regularly.
Note: General guidance correct as at August 2026. This is not legal advice — always instruct a solicitor to review your specific lease.
