Just as you want to make sure you get all the rights you need over the rest of the building, equally, the landlords will need to keep some rights over the premises they are leasing to you. In the lease, these rights for the landlords are called “exceptions and reservations”.
The landlords will need the right to enter your premises to carry out any necessary building works – for example, if there’s a problem with drainage which can only be accessed from your premises, or if it is necessary to relay telephone or electricity cables, for example. This is a practical arrangement which is obviously necessary, particularly in multi-occupation buildings where the landlords are responsible to everyone to keep the structure of the building and its essential services in good repair.
The landlords will also have the right to enter your premises for inspection – for example, to make sure you haven’t made any structural alterations without permission, and to check that you have done any repairs you agreed to do. The landlords can, in some circumstances, come into your premises with builders themselves and do any works which you have failed to carry out. This usually requires service of a notice on you beforehand, to give you a chance to do the works.
If you are only occupying part of a building, there may be pipes, wires, and cables for all the building’s services which pass through or behind the walls and under the floors. Just as you need a right to use these services and to have them reach your premises through other parts of the building, so the landlord needs to retain the right for the services to reach other parts of the building while passing through yours. So, the landlord will have an identical right in the lease to cover that.
If the landlords own land or another building next to yours, they may want a right to build on it without you objecting.
To carry out external repairs, the landlords will want the right to erect scaffolding and re-route services.
There may be other rights the landlord needs, depending on the particular property and circumstances, but these are usual ones in a lease.
But even if you agree this is all reasonable in principle, you still need to make sure the landlord exercises these rights in an responsible way so that it doesn’t disrupt your business. You need to make sure you’ve got some protection against the landlords abusing their rights.
Here are a few suggestions for precautions you should make sure are included to protect yourself.
Let’s start with the access rights. The landlord should only be allowed to exercise a right of access by appointment or after giving you a reasonable amount of prior notice – like three days – so you can prepare, or do something about it if you don’t agree.
And the access itself should only be allowed at a reasonable time of day – between 10am and 5pm, for example. That won’t work if it’s an emergency – 2am in the morning and a pipe bursts, for example – so a landlord will need a right of immediate access, including the right to break in when necessary, when there is an emergency to deal with.
Finally, the lease should say that any works will be carried out as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that the landlord will make good any damage which has been caused to your premises – so, they must put everything back as it was and decorate if necessary.
If the landlord has a right to put up scaffolding or to develop an adjoining property, you should make sure it is stipulated that these works can only be done in a way that won’t materially affect your use and occupation of your premises. They mustn’t be able to just block off your access, or expect people to jump over a trench.