David Sullivan, Managing Partner
When you take on acommercial lease you may find that part way through the agreed timescale yourcircumstances change and you need to try and break your lease. This can becomplicated and costly as you will be in breach of the agreement and you maywell be left with little choice but to pay to get out of the lease.
However, before yougo down that route, it is worth checking to see if you have a clause in yourlease that allows you to sublet. If so, this could solve a number of problemsfor you. Even where your original lease does not allow subletting, you could negotiate with your landlord to see if you can reachan agreement.
There are someconsiderations for you to make when considering subletting though. You shouldbe aware that the original terms of your lease will still apply and you arestill in agreement with your landlord under these terms. The sublease willsimply sit within the original lease and operate beneath it.
When you sublet, youbecome a landlord too and your tenant is bound to you in the same way and underthe same terms as you are to your landlord. This could be a cause for concernand mean that you have to take on the additional hassle of being a landlord andacting as a middleman between your new tenant who is subletting from you andyour landlord.
You have theopportunity to make changes to the lease when you sublet too, but remember youcannot remove any part of the lease without agreement from your landlord and itmay not benefit you to have those clauses removed from your lease just to giveyour subletting tenant less favourable terms.
If you had to pay adeposit when you moved into the premises, it makes sense that you ask yoursubletting tenant for the same amount. This means that if anything does gowrong, you will not be left out of pocket.
Where you are goingto sublet the whole property it may be sensible to encourage your landlord totake a lease with the new tenant rather than to sublet from you. The costs areroughly the same and it makes the whole process less complicated and removesyour legal obligations to the landlord.
Either way, the useof an experienced commercial property lawyer will ensure that the transactiongoes smoothly and that you are aware of your responsibilities and liabilities.
For more information about this articleor any aspect of our business legal solutions, please call David Sullivan on028 9077 4500
0+
