Drafting and negotiating a commercial lease

A lease by reference incorporates the clauses of an existing lease or other document by reference, which avoids repeating each individual clause in the new lease.

Occassionally, and in certain jurisdictions only, a landlord and tenant may agree to enter into a commercial lease which incorporates the terms of an existing lease or a registered memorandum, instead of entering into a long form commercial lease. Similarly, where a tenant proposes to grant a sublease of all or part of its premises to a subtenant, the sublease may incorporate the terms of the head lease with certain variations and additional provisions. This may have the advantage of brevity but the provisions of the existing lease (or head lease) or registered memorandum must be considered carefully. A lease or sublease by reference may not be suitable for use in all cases.

For a standard form lease by reference, see Standard document, Commercial lease incorporating terms of an existing lease or registered memorandum.

For a standard form sublease of part or the whole of the premises under the head lease, which incorporates the terms of the head lease, see Standard documents, Sublease of part incorporating terms of head lease and Sublease of whole incorporating terms of head lease.

For:

Where the tenant is required to provide a guarantee for the performance of its obligations under the lease, a guarantee and indemnity may be required from a guarantor in favour of the landlord. For a standalone guarantee and indemnity for the tenant's obligations under the lease, see Standard document, Guarantee and indemnity: single guarantor, tenant obligations under a lease.

For a landlord and tenant to document any supplementary arrangements in connection with the lease, see Standard documents, Lease side letter (binding) and Lease side deed.