Lock up shop lease agreement

About this shop lease

This lease should be used to let a shop or retail unit that does not share services or facilities with neighbouring units owned by the same landlord. The shop itself may be part of a parade of other shops owned by other landlords, or it may be stand-alone.

The shop may or may not have additional space used by the tenant for other business purposes, such as offices or storage.

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 commercial lease agreements

If a restaurant, cafe or fast food outlet will be operated from the property, use Restaurant lease agreement. This lease contains specific clauses for commercial kitchens and food retail.

If the shop being let is part of a parade owned by the same landlord, or uses shared facilities and services, use Business lease: shop in parade. This agreement contains service charge recovery provisions.

If the property will be used as an office (rather than a shop), Self contained office lease agreement may be more appropriate.

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 shop 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.

Document contents

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

The contents include 29 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