Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Lease definition

What does Lease mean? In practice, a lease is an agreement by which a landlord grants a tenant exclusive possession of land or premises for a period, usually for rent. It creates the landlord–tenant relationship and a proprietary estate/right, unlike a licence. Across England & Wales and Northern Ireland, the test (Street v Mountford) centres on exclusive possession and a term certain; rent is not essential. Leases over three years generally require a deed; longer terms are registrable (in E&W, over seven years). Business tenancies may attract statutory security of tenure (E&W: Landlord and Tenant Act 1954; NI: Business Tenancies...

Commercial lease transactions: Scotland versus England & Wales—pre‑contract to post‑completion differences, security of tenure, tacit relocation, assignment/subletting, privity, irritancy/forfeiture, registration, repairs and LBTT/SDLT

Published by a LexisNexis Property expert

Practice notes

PrACTice Note overview

This Practice Note reviews the stages in negotiating commercial Leases in England and Wales compared with Scotland, spanning pre-Contract, contract, post-contract, completion and settlement, and post-completion and settlement...

England and Wales / Scotland

Pre-contract

The tenant submits pre-contract enquiries to the landlord.
The tenant undertakes due diligence, ordering required material such as official copies of the landlord’s title, land charges searches, coal mining reports and local authority enquiries.
The landlord circulates a draft agreement for lease (incorporating standard conditions of sale), the draft lease and any other necessary drafts, for example a licence for fitting-out works.
The parties negotiate the draft documents.
The landlord secures any third-party consents needed for the lease, e.g. head landlord’s approval or a bank’s consent where there is a legal charge over the property.
Once the paperwork is agreed, if contracting out of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 security of tenure regime, the notice process must be followed and a statutory declaration or declaration obtained from the tenant.
The landlord supplies the tenant with evidence of title together with all requisite searches and reports...

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Rachel Oliphant

Pinsent Masons

Rachel is a senior practice development lawyer for the Scottish property team at Pinsent Masons and is senior tutor in conveyancing on the Diploma in Legal Practice at The University of Edinburgh. After practising as a commercial property solicitor in England (at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) and then in Scotland (at McGrigor Donald which she joined in 1995) Rachel became one of the first property professional support lawyers in Scotland in 2001. Rachel's transactional experience was in property development particularly retail development in both England and Scotland. In her current role at Pinsent Masons Rachel is responsible for keeping the property lawyers up to date on changes in property law and market practice, creating and maintaining precedents and organising and delivering training to ensure that the lawyers in the team are fully-equipped with the necessary technical excellence and skills to deliver a...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...

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