Business tenants usually have a legal right to have their leases renewed when the first lease term ends. These rights are contained in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. This piece of government legislation is what gives tenants the right to renew their leases. When you have these rights your lease is said to be “inside the act” – meaning, inside the protection of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
Your will not have the right to have the term renewed if, at the very start, you agreed that you wouldn’t. That will happen by you signing some specific paperwork saying that you give up your right to renew the lease when the term comes to an end. Then the lease is said to be “outside the act” – meaning, inside the protection of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. If the lease is “outside the act”, the term ends on the date specified in the lease. If the lease says that the term is five years from 24 March 2020, then it ends at midnight on 24 March 2025. From that point on, you are trespassing.
If the lease is “inside the act”, the term does not automatically end on the date specified in the lease. It only ends when either the landlord or the tenant serve a notice on the other requiring the issue of future occupation to be resolved. The tenant might do this in order to get the ball rolling on a new lease. A landlord might do it because, until he does, the rent will continue at the existing rate, and he may feel that a higher rent should now be payable.