Negotiating Commercial Leases
Landlords and tenants from across the South West are booking their tickets for the next Foot Anstey Quarterly Property Debate supported by the Western Morning News on 17th January. The event will examine the highly topical landlord tenant relationship and how the Government is threatening to intervene if the property world does not change its ways.
David Stone, associate at South West law firm said “Tenants and landlords are at polarised positions when they negotiate a commercial lease. It starts with the landlord wanting to maximise the rent and the tenant wishing to minimise it and goes through a myriad of issues including alterations to assignment, rent reviews, service charges and so on.
“One thing landlords and tenants do agree on is the industry can ill afford government intervention. If they continue in their opposing approaches and disregard of the new Code for Leasing Business Premises then the Government will step in. If that happens the industry will face the inevitable ‘one size to fit all’ rules which will be costly and difficult to implement and supervise.”
“The art of assisting reconciliation of these issues and the parties’ positions is the province of the chartered surveyor and commercial property lawyer. At our event Ray Knight of P&O Estates, and Steve Lobb and Simon Laslett of Hartnell Taylor Cook, who were instrumental in creating Drake Circus Shopping Centre, examine these issues and pose questions to stimulate debate.
“Inflexible and overly onerous lease provisions adversely effect rental values on review and drawn out lease negotiations are costly and strain the landlord tenant relationship from the very beginning.
“The debate should identify how to achieve that middle ground which will reduce the cost and help improve lease negotiations so that the industry can prove to the government that we do not need outside intervention to put our house in order.”
To reserve a place at the debate on 17th January 2008, contact Gillian Brown on 01752 675002 or visit www.foot-ansteys.co.uk/events to book online.
Published 01/01/2008
