Navigating the Commercial Lease Exit: A Tenant's Guide

Some commercial tenants find that they no longer require a lease of the property they are renting due to expense or business needs. In many leases, there are express provisions governing a tenant’s potential right to exit a lease or transfer their interest in the lease to a new 3rd party.

There are different methods of transferring your lease, depending on your obligations to the landlord in the lease. The most common are assignments and underletting. Alternatively, to bring the lease to a complete end, there may be the option to exercise any break clause in the lease or potentially agree with the landlord to surrender the lease. 

The important point to note is that a tenant is only permitted to transfer the lease if provisions are expressly set out in the lease itself. The ability to transfer or exit the lease also depends on the particular facts of each lease/situation and whether there are any existing or current breaches of the lease or specific prohibitions imposed by the landlord. 

Underletting differs from assignment in that the outgoing tenant still remains involved with the lease. An underletting is where the current tenant sub-lets the property to a 3rd party (again, with the landlord’s consent). The old tenant will then become the landlord of a new sub-lease created between the old tenant (now a landlord) and the sub-tenant.

There are usually conditions and requirements set out in the original lease that govern any potential sub-letting. For example, sub-letting is usually not permitted if you are in rent arrears or have failed to comply with any of your obligations under the lease.

Further, the head landlord can impose requirements on the terms of the sub-lease, for example, as to the amount of rent, the term of the sub-lease, or may be permitted to vet the sub-tenant or require the sub-tenant to directly agree with the landlord compliance with the original lease.

An important point to note regarding the sub-lease is that it cannot be for a term longer than the original lease – the sub-lease must expire prior to the expiration of the term of the original lease.

The sub-lease will usually be drafted by a solicitor on similar terms to the original lease. Once completed, again, the original landlord must be informed. The sub-tenant must then pay the sub-lease rent to the new landlord under the sub-lease and comply with all obligations as set out in the sub-lease. The original lease remains in existence, and the old tenant retains all its obligations under this lease, too.

Alternatively, a more certain and simpler option is to surrender the lease. If the landlord is happy and willing for the lease to come to an end altogether with no transfer to a 3rd party, then you can agree to surrender the lease. A lease surrender is usually formalised by a deed between the landlord and the tenant.

This deed will set out the terms of the surrender and can include any conditions or obligations as to the surrender, including:

• Any payment made for the surrender of the lease; 
• Any payment made for dilapidations and/or obligations to deal with these;
• Any agreement made as to the removal of fixtures and fittings or
• Any damages payment as compensation for any existing breaches of the lease.

Once the surrender deed has been agreed and completed, the lease will come to an end on the surrender date as set out in the deed.