A lease is the document your business depends on from the day you sign to the day you leave. Most of the trouble people end up in was written into the lease on signing day, not something that came up later. We draw up, check and negotiate commercial and retail leases right across Australia so the document looks after you for the whole term.
If the premises are a shop, or sit inside a retail centre, your state's retail leasing law applies. Those protections sit on top of the contract. They cannot be written out, and a landlord who ignores them can hand the tenant the right to walk away, claw back money, or take it to the tribunal.
Offices, warehouses, industrial units and most non-retail space sit outside that protection. The deal is whatever the lease says it is. That freedom runs both ways. There's no safety net, so the wording is the only thing standing between you and an outcome you didn't mean to agree to.
Not sure which one you've got? That's the first thing we'll tell you, before anything else gets decided.
Your lease is what turns a property into income. We write it to protect that income: the rent, the use of the space, and what you get back at the end of the term.
You're committing years of your business's income to someone else's building. We read every clause, flag what actually costs you money and negotiate what's worth changing.
Before the lawyers draw anything up, the deal usually gets set out in a letter of offer or heads of agreement. Get this wrong and you'll be arguing about it for the rest of the term. We make sure the headline deal is captured properly, and that you're not accidentally locked in before you mean to be.
A lease built from a clean, current precedent and shaped around your deal. Permitted use, term, options, rent and reviews, outgoings, repairs, insurance, assignment and make good, all written to do what you actually want.
You've been handed a lease and told to sign. We read all of it, flag every clause that could hurt you, and tell you which points are worth pushing on and which aren't. You get a clear recommendation at the end, not a pile of things to worry about.
When the lease only starts once something else happens, like a fitout, an approval, or building work finishing, the deal needs an agreement for lease. We set the conditions, the timing, and what happens if a condition isn't met.
For retail premises the landlord has to give a disclosure statement before the lease is signed. Get the numbers or the categories wrong and the tenant picks up rights against you. We prepare disclosure that matches the lease and the real costs, so nothing comes back later.
CPI, a fixed percentage, market review, or a mix of them. Each one behaves very differently over a five or ten year term, and retail leases limit what's allowed. We set the review up so the number that lands in year four is the one you expected when you signed.
Options get missed more than any other right in a lease, usually because the window is short and the wording is fussy. We make sure options are exercised properly and on time, and for landlords we handle the notice obligations.
Outgoings are where tenants quietly lose money. We narrow what can be passed on, check the estimates against the disclosure, and keep an eye on the yearly reconciliation, so you're not paying for the landlord's capital works dressed up as running costs.
Selling the business usually means handing the lease to the buyer, and that needs the landlord's consent, plus updated disclosure for retail. We handle the consent, the assignment deed, and the question that matters most: whether you're let off the hook or still on it after you've gone.
Letting part or all of the space to someone else while you stay on the head lease. It can be a handy pressure valve or a trap, depending on the head lease. We draw up the sublease and make sure it sits cleanly underneath.
Deals change. Rent gets renegotiated, space expands, terms get extended. We put variations and renewals into proper deeds, so the change actually sticks and doesn't quietly reset something else in the lease. Here's our plain-English guide to a deed of variation.
The end of a lease is where the surprise bills show up. Strict make good can run into tens of thousands. We tell you what you're really on the hook for, negotiate a payment instead where that's cheaper, and handle surrenders and early exits.
Bank guarantees, cash bonds and personal guarantees are the landlord's protection and the tenant's risk. We get the amount, the trigger and the release right, and for retail we keep them inside what the law allows.
Leases longer than three years usually should be registered with the state land registry, which protects the tenant's interest if the land changes hands. We prepare and lodge it, and sort out any mortgagee consent that's needed.
When a lease goes wrong, where you run it and how you run it both matter. Retail disputes usually go to a tribunal, commercial disputes to court. We act on arrears, breaches, repair fights, bond claims, terminations and unfair conduct, and we'll tell you early if a point isn't worth chasing.
Retail tenants get a safety net that commercial tenants don't. The trade-off is that landlords carry real obligations from before the lease is even signed.
The points here decide most retail disputes. We make sure landlords meet them and tenants use them. For the rules where your property actually is, we've broken it down state by state.
See the rules in your stateThe landlord has to give a disclosure statement before the lease is entered into. Miss it or get it wrong and the tenant can often walk away early.
Most states set a minimum term for retail leases, counting options, unless the tenant gets independent advice and properly agrees to less.
In many states the landlord can't make the tenant pay its legal costs of preparing the lease. A clause that tries to is usually void.
Outgoings have to be disclosed, then reconciled each year. Outgoings that weren't disclosed generally can't be recovered.
Only certain review methods are allowed, and the lease can't stack methods together to manufacture an increase.
Retail disputes usually go to a state tribunal, which is faster and cheaper than court for most disagreements.
A strict reinstatement clause can mean stripping the space back to bare shell at the end of the term. Tenants sign it without pricing it. We flag what it really means before you commit, or turn it into a fixed payment.
A fixed four per cent rise compounds. Over a ten year term it nearly doubles the rent. The clause looks small at signing and very large by year eight.
Open-ended outgoings let a landlord pass on costs you never agreed to carry. Narrowing the definition at the start is far cheaper than arguing about it later.
Options have a window and a method. Exercise late or in the wrong form and the right is gone, along with the goodwill tied to the location. Diary it, do it properly.
A guarantee can outlive the lease itself and follow you for years after you've left the business. Tenants rarely read this clause. It's one of the most important.
For landlords, a faulty disclosure statement isn't a technicality. It can hand the tenant the right to walk and to claw back money. Worth getting right the first time.
We find out what you need and agree a fixed price before anything starts.
Every clause of every document. We build the advice from the lease in front of us, not from a template or a memory of a similar deal.
You get a clear position and a recommendation. Where there's another side, we negotiate to it instead of just listing problems.
Final documents, signing, and registration where the term needs it. Then the file closes clean and you know exactly where you stand.
Most leasing work is one fixed price, agreed before we start, so you know the cost before you commit. Where a matter genuinely can't be fixed, we agree an hourly rate up front. No surprise bill at the end. See our fees.
Protecting your property and your income, start to finish.
Take me thereKnow exactly what you're signing before you sign it.
Take me thereYour rights as a retail landlord or tenant, state by state.
Take me thereFair, fixed prices, with no surprises at the end.
Take me thereWhether you're signing, drawing something up, renewing or trying to get out, the best time to get advice is before you commit, not after. Send us the document and a line about the deal. We'll come back with a fixed price and a straight answer.
We get back to most people the same day.
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Just so you know, sending us a message or having a chat doesn't mean we're officially your lawyers yet. That happens once we've agreed in writing to work together. Everything you share with us at this stage is kept completely confidential. The information on this website is general in nature. It's a good starting point, but it's not the same as advice for your specific situation, and retail leasing rules differ from state to state. The Leasing Lawyer is a trading name of Docet Legal.