If you are taking a shop or a bar or a restaurant the shopfront will be particularly important to you. It’s a big part of how you attract your business.
You need to give special attention to who will own the shopfront and who will repair it.
Unless you own it – by which I mean, having it specifically included in what is demised to you in the lease – you have no control over it. You may have to own it for the period of the lease in order to have necessary rights to alter it, paint it, or put a sign up on it. So when you are negotiating to take the lease, you should give special attention to whether you want to have the shopfront included in your demise.
If you own the shopfront you probably also have to repair it. Most leases of multi-occupational buildings will split repairing obligations so that the tenants repair the parts of the building which has been leased to them (usually only the interior and non-structural parts of the building) and the landlords are responsible for all the structural and common parts of the building. Normally, the external walls – including the front wall – would be retained by the landlords and repaired by them. But the shopfront is a special issue for tenants of shops, bars, or restaurants where they probably will want the right to control repairs and appearance.
Even owning the shopfront doesn’t mean that you have total control over it. The lease will probably contain restrictions – covenants by you not to do certain things – which may include restrictions that you cannot alter or repaint the façade without the landlord’s consent. Another restriction may be that you are not allowed put up signs without prior approval of the landlord. Some leases even restrict what can be put in the windows. In all such cases, if you agree to them, you must ensure that it is stated that the landlord’s consent cannot be unreasonably withheld or delayed.
Apart from the landlord’s permission, you may need to get planning permission from the local council for the signage you plan to put up. If it’s important to your business, you need to check it out before you sign up for the lease.
There may be good reasons why a landlord wishes to control what you do to the shopfront. For example, if there is a parade of shops, the landlord may wish to ensure that all tenants adhere to a particular style, colour scheme, and signage. But apart from that, a landlord shouldn’t be able to withhold consent for something reasonable which has no effect on the landlord’s interest in the property. By interest, I mean property interest, not an aesthetic interest!
All this is important because you don’t want to sign up for an expensive long-term lease commitment and then find you don’t have adequate control over how you can present your premises and market your business.