Ending a Lease

Effluxion of Time

The lease term may expire because of the passage of time rather than a specified term of the lease or action by one of the parties. WG Commercial’s Property Team can advise you on whether or not you still need to serve a notice that you intend to vacate or just walk away, and what your yielding up obligations may be.

Surrender of a Lease

At WG Commercial, the Property Team recognise that at times it is not always in the parties’ commercial interests for leasehold property to be retained until the end of the lease term. In certain circumstances, the landlord and tenant may mutually agree to surrender the Lease. For such a surrender to be effective the correct statutory procedure may need to be followed. We can advise both landlords and tenants as to the requirements for a surrender of the Lease and consider the effects on any sub-tenants.

Exercising Break Clauses

To effectively exercise a break clause is often not as straightforward as one might think. WG Commercial’s Property Team can advise you on who can serve the break notice and how and when this should be done.

If you are the party upon whom the notice is served we can advise you on whether or not you have grounds to challenge the notice 

Time is often critical when serving a break notice and it is therefore very important that you take legal advice at the earliest opportunity.

Yielding Up Obligations

When a lease of commercial property comes to an end, the landlord can be left with a property in disrepair. If the disrepair is significant, the landlord will lose rental income whilst remedial work is undertaken. Whether a tenant or landlord, WG Commercial’s Property Team can advise you on negotiating the most favourable terms in settling yeilding up obligations.

For more information on commercial property law please contact the Southampton team on 02380 717414 or email deniseoatham@warnergoodman.co.uk or the Portsmouth team on 02392 776503 or email clairebattye@warnergoodman.co.uk