An Introduction to Drafting Commercial Leases - Traps, Tricks & Pitfalls

Introduction

This interactive live broadcast over two sessions will cover the major issues in commercial lease drafting.

It will look at the hidden traps and the practical workarounds that enable you to agree a lease that suits your tenant client.

The course is designed to give you a solid grounding, from heads of terms stage, through to drafting the lease itself, to completion and beyond. It will help you understand what needs to be in a commercial lease, why those provisions are important and the differing priorities of the landlord and the tenant when the lease is being negotiated.

The Model Commercial Lease will be used as a template. In addition to looking at the legal issues, we examine the drafting of the lease to explore why the lease provisions say what they do and what drafting compromises can be proposed.

It is aimed at junior commercial property lawyers and paralegals. It is also relevant for surveyors who wish to deepen their understanding of commercial lease issues.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive session will cover the following:

• Standard forms of lease - including the Model Commercial Lease, PLC, Lexis PSL, RICS, Law Society
• Code for leasing business premises and its model heads of terms
• 1954 Act - Inside or out? How a lease that's inside the Act may fall outside of it later
• Contracting out of the 1954 Act
• Leases of part - issues to consider
• What is an ‘FRI’ or an ‘institutional’ lease?
• Forms of lease - Land Registry prescribed clauses; when can a lease be by hand or oral?
• The perils of inadvertently granting a lease by mistake
• Parties to the lease - making sure the lease is valid
• Extent of the demise - what's included?
• Term - Interpreting dates; issues to consider with lease lengths; registration of the lease
• Break clauses - traps to beware; making sure it can be exercised; the conditional break trap; what rent to pay; the apportionment trap
• Rights and reservations - what do you need; how to protect the rights and your client's interests
• Rent(s)
• Rent review - how an open market rent review is calculated; alternatives to open market review
• Insurance - including flood and uninsured risks; rent suspension
• Repair and redecoration - alternatives to ‘full repair’; spotting the gaps; standard of repair; Jervis v Harris clauses; landlord's repairing obligations
• Green lease clauses - what they are and why they matter
• EPCs and MEEs - issues to consider
• Outgoings
• Service charge - what does it cover; protections for the tenant; RICS service charge code
• Alienation - assignment/underletting; preconditions; consents; AGAs; GAGAs; sharing occupation; group companies
• Alterations - what can and can't be done? Practical issues to consider
• Signage
• Permitted use - planning ahead
• Exclusivity issues; competition law considerations
• ‘Keep open’ clauses
• Yielding up
• Landlord's covenants
• SDLT, Land Registry and other post completion issues
• Avoiding the surrender and regrant trap

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.