Business premises. Deals that complete.

Every commercial file gets a timetable at the start, and a weekly nudge to whoever is holding it up. Usually, that isn't us.

Buying at auction or against a lease expiry? Say so in your enquiry and we'll build the timetable around it.

Tell us the property, the deal and your deadline — the quote and timetable come back the same working day.

The commercial property work we handle

Premises are where your money and your operations meet. We keep the legal work commercial.

Freehold or leasehold — title, searches and finance run to your trading date.

Contract pack out fast, buyer enquiries answered the week they arrive.

Heads of terms into a lease that still works in year ten — repair, rent review and break clauses that don't bite later.

Tenanted property bought and sold with the income checked: leases, arrears and covenants reviewed before you commit.

New loans and refinancing, with your lender's requirements handled in the same transaction.

Site purchases, options and conditional contracts, structured so you're not buying risk you can't see.

You carry the repairs and the insurance — and "keep in repair" can mean put in repair, even if the building was tired when you took it. The defence is a schedule of condition, agreed on day one.

Most reviews are upwards-only: the rent can rise, never fall. Whether it tracks the open market or an index, and what assumptions are written in, decides your year-six rent.

The right to walk away mid-term, applied ruthlessly. Serve notice a day late, or leave a filing cabinet behind when "vacant possession" is required, and you're locked in for the rest of the term.

Whether you can sell the lease or sublet if plans change, and on what conditions. Expect an "AGA": a guarantee that your buyer will pay, which keeps you on the hook after you've gone.

The landlord's running costs, passed on to tenants. Caps, exclusions and a look at recent accounts are negotiable before you sign, and near-impossible to win afterwards. A new roof shouldn't be your surprise.

By default, business tenants have a statutory right to renew when the lease ends. Many landlords "contract out" — legitimate, but it changes what your fit-out is worth. Know which lease you're signing.

Dilapidations: how leases end expensively

At the end of the term, the landlord's surveyor serves a schedule of everything the lease obliged you to repair, redecorate or reinstate — priced at their numbers. On a full repairing lease of a worn building, that's routinely a five-figure surprise.

The cure happens at the start: a schedule of condition with photographs, repair obligations pegged to it, and reinstatement terms you understand. That's the work we front-load on every tenant lease.

VAT and SDLT, checked before you commit

We're not tax advisers, but we make sure the right questions are asked and answered before your money moves.

Renewing, extending or passing on an existing lease is its own discipline.

Renewals under the 1954 Act, assignments, extensions and surrenders run on statutory clocks of their own — see our lease assignments & extensions desk. If a deal or landlord relationship has turned sour, our commercial disputes team picks it up from there.

Senior people on your deal

Partners who've completed hundreds of commercial transactions and know which battles are worth your money.

Partners, solicitors and paralegals who keep your file moving while you run the business.

Across ReviewSolicitors and Trustpilot — clients with matters just like yours, who would come back.

A freehold purchase with a clean title typically runs four to eight weeks; leasehold and financed deals take longer. You'll get a realistic timetable on day one, and a weekly view of who's holding what.

The lease is the asset — and the liability. Repair, rent review, service charge and break terms decide what the premises really cost over the term. We read them the way a landlord's surveyor will, before you're committed.

Talk to us first if you can. Heads of terms aren't usually binding, but they set the negotiating baseline — far cheaper to shape the deal now than to unpick a bad term later.

Commercial rates differ from residential, and on new leases SDLT can be due on the rent as well as any premium. We calculate it, file the return and claim any reliefs that apply.

Both — landlords granting leases and tenants taking them, though never both sides of the same deal. Acting for each side week in, week out keeps our drafting and negotiation sharp.

A photographic and written record of the property's state on the day your lease starts, attached so your repair obligation is pegged to that condition rather than 'good repair' in the abstract. On a full repairing lease of an older building, it's the cheapest insurance you'll buy.

By default the law gives business tenants the right to a new lease when theirs ends. Landlords can exclude that protection — 'contracting out' — with a formal warning notice before you sign. It's common and legitimate, but with no automatic renewal, your fit-out investment and your position at term end look very different.

Only if the seller has 'opted to tax' the building — then VAT is added to the price and increases the SDLT. On tenanted investment purchases, a correctly structured transfer of a going concern can remove VAT from the deal altogether. We establish the position at the start, not at completion.