Leasing and Licences
Leases and Licenses are often confused; however, each is a specific type of document. The commercial property department of Gowen & Stevens has wide experience in acting for both landlords and tenants, and in respect of premises ranging from small shops or offices through to retail networks and industrial estates.
Whilst the form of any lease is, broadly speaking, similar in every instance, in practice, each lease is drafted for a specific property. We listen to the requirements of landlords and prepare leases in accordance with those instructions making suggestions where we consider that they may be, in the longer term, of benefit to the client.
We will advise you whether or not a lease should be included or excluded from the terms of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II (as amended):
- On the frequency of rent reviews
- On the nature and extent of service charges which you may wish or indeed need to raise
- On the level of repairing obligations which you may wish to impose (or if a tenant reduce)
Where acting for a tenant on the grant of a new lease, instructing us early can ensure that we can advise upon the Heads of Terms and whether these are reasonable and fair and in line with current trends.
Often, by careful amendment, it may be possible to lessen a tenant’s obligations and thus ensure that the lease is more attractive as and when the time comes for it to be assigned/transferred to a third party.
Licences are, in effect, the consent of a landlord to a tenant to do a number of different things. It may be, at its most common, to assign a lease to a third party or to permit the sharing of occupation with another person or company. If you wish to undertake work to the premises of which you are a tenant, the landlord’s licence to Permit Alterations will often be required. Our commercial property department can assist both landlords and tenants in determining when such a licence may be required and in the drafting or amending of such documents.
