Business lease

About this lease

This business lease has been drawn to let a retail unit in a parade of shops owned by the same landlord. Tenants are likely to share some facilities and services. This agreement allows for service charge recovery and use of shared facilities between tenants. The shop could be for any purpose. Examples are: retail of goods, restaurant or cafe, or service provision such as PC repair or estate agency.

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, Restaurant lease agreement may be more appropriate. This lease contains specific clauses for commercial kitchens and food retail.
• If you don't require service charge recovery provisions, Lock up shop lease agreement.
• 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 lease 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

Business lease law is regulated primarily by the Lease of Land Act 1969. If the term of this lease is longer than ten years it must be registered at the Deed Registry Office at:

http://www.deeds.gov.za/ITSODeedsWebB/deedsweb/welcome.jsp

Document contents

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

The contents include 30 provisions and 3 schedules covering:

• rent: period, amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• tenant's positive obligations
• service charge recovery
• 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: the service charge
• Schedule 2: rights reserved
• Schedule 3: draft agreement for a security deposit