Self contained office lease agreement

About this office lease

This is a comprehensive and easy to use business lease for letting the whole of a commercial office building to a single tenant.

This is a professionally drawn, very comprehensive lease with massive legal protection for the landlord including a long menu of “do’s” and “don’ts”.

This lease is not a compromise between the interests of the parties. It prefers the landlord’s interest. We think that is the best start point. If you wish to make concessions to your tenant, that is fine, but we want you have those choices.

It includes service charge provisions to provide 100% recovery of service costs.

Similar business lease agreements

If you are letting an office building to multiple tenants (either by floor or by suite), you should use: Business lease: suite of offices.

We also offer a lease for a retail unit or shop where the “office” tenant also rents office space within the same building. See Lock up shop lease agreement.

Key features

Plain English is used throughout except where it is necessary to use legal terms common in this field of law. The key features of this template can be summarised as:

• standard guarantor
• options for transfer or assignment to another party
• sub-letting forbidden
• option to include a break clause for premature termination by the tenant
• a choice of options for rent reviews

The law in this office lease

Commercial leases differ significantly from residential leases. Residential leases are highly regulated. In contrast, commercial leases are governed chiefly by common law and are very loosely regulated. The rights and obligations of the landlord and tenant are mainly a matter of agreement between the parties. There are no statutory requirements to register your lease, but either party may register a lease of three years or more.

Lease template contents

This commercial office lease is comprehensive, providing alternative choices for important decisions.

The contents include 24 provisions and 2 schedules covering:

• rent: period, amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• tenant's positive obligations
• restrictions on tenant: prohibited activities on the property
• signs and advertisements
• assignment of the lease
• indemnities by the tenant
• security deposit
• insurance
• access for landlord
• guarantor
• termination: default notice by landlord; provision for premature termination (a break clause)
• forfeiture

Schedule 1: rights reserved

Schedule 2: draft agreement for a security deposit