Renting business premises
An office, warehouse, factory or yard. Unlike shop tenants, you have almost no special legal protection here. Whatever is written in the lease is what you have agreed to.
There is no safety net
Shop tenants have a law protecting them. Home renters have a law protecting them. If you are renting an office or a warehouse, you generally have neither.
That means no required summary of costs before you sign, no minimum lease length, no cap on what you can be charged, and no free mediation service if things go wrong. The lease is the deal.
The clause people worry about is rarely the expensive one. The expensive ones are the end-of-lease repair bill, the rent rises compounding over ten years, and the personal guarantee.
There are a few exceptions worth knowing. In South Australia and the ACT, ordinary commercial premises can be covered by the shop laws. In Victoria, offices open to the public have been caught too. We check this for you.
What we look at
- How long you are tied in, how you renew, and exactly when you have to ask. Miss that window and you can lose the premises.
- What the rent will actually be in year five and year ten, once the increases have compounded.
- What else you pay on top of rent — rates, insurance, cleaning, security, air conditioning, marketing.
- What you have to do before you leave. Often this means stripping the place back to a bare shell at your cost.
- Whether you can get out if you sell the business or need to move, and whether you stay liable afterwards.
- What you are personally on the hook for, including any guarantee you or your directors are asked to sign.
- Fitout money and rent-free periods, which usually come with a clause making you pay it all back if something goes wrong.
What you get from us
You send us the lease and everything attached to it. A senior solicitor reads it, and you get four things back.
- 1Written advice you can act onPlain English, no Latin, no hedging. Every clause that could cost you money, what it means in practice and what it is likely to cost.
- 2Your obligations, listedWhat you have to pay, when, and what happens if you are late. Outgoings, rent reviews, make good, guarantees and insurance, set out in one place.
- 3A list of changes to ask forSpecific amendments, in order of importance, written so you can send them to the landlord or their agent as they are.
- 4A call with the solicitor who wrote itNot a paralegal and not a call centre. The person who read your lease answers your questions about it.
All of it for the fixed fee. If we think your situation needs more than preliminary advice, we say so before you pay anything.
Words you will see in your lease
Outgoings
The building costs the landlord passes on to you — council rates, water, insurance, cleaning, security. They are on top of the rent, and they go up.
Make good
What you must do to the premises before you leave. Often it means stripping everything out and putting it back the way it was, at your cost.
Option
Your right to stay on for another set period. You usually have to ask for it in writing, in a narrow window. Miss the window and you lose it.
Rent review
The moment your rent changes. It might go up by a fixed percentage, by inflation, or to market rate. Many leases say it can never go down.
Guarantee
A promise that you will personally pay if your business cannot. If you sign one, your own money and assets are behind the lease.
Disclosure statement
A summary the landlord must give you before you sign a shop lease, setting out the costs and the key terms. If it is missing or wrong, you may have rights.
$1,100
Including GST. One fee, agreed before we start, that does not change.
You get a written advice from a senior solicitor within 5 business days from receiving your documents. It points you to the clauses that matter, flags anything that is not standard, and tells you what you can push back on — plus a phone call to talk it through.
Do the public come to your premises?
If so, your lease might legally be a shop lease even if everyone calls it commercial. That would give you a lot more protection. It is worth checking.