How To Escape The Break Clause When Renting Commercial Property In West Sussex

Congratulations! Your business is expanding or you are on the lookout for office space for your new venture. You are busy setting up the business model and hiring employees. You could not be bothered with mundane activities such as drawing up your lease or dissecting the clauses incorporated into the same.

Fortunately, being vigilant about your rental agreement can save you an immeasurable headache later on. In this blog, we will discuss one of the most common thorns on the side of most commercial renters – the break clause.

What is a break clause?

A break clause enables a tenant to terminate the lease before its expiry. With the growing uncertainty of modern business, more and more entrepreneurs are eager to include this option in order to check their losses when renting commercial property.

Unfortunately, many landlords affect strenuous conditions on the break clause that impose severe restrictions on any tenant who try to avail it.

How do break clauses adversely affect the tenants?

Often, tenants agree to higher rent or a shorter notice period as part of the break clause. These conditions then become sacrosanct and more often than not, landlords refuse to recognise break notices if these conditions are not fulfilled to a T.

Sadly, many tenants fail to win litigations against their landlords because of these conditional break clauses. The conditions often include vacant possession, rent payment or property maintenance.

How can you escape break clauses?

Most tenants accept conditional break clauses because they fail to grasp the simple concept that all such conditions are rendered unnecessary by a separate clause that is a part of every lease and says that tenants cannot breach any part of the contract at the time of termination.

So, the next time you are renting commercial offices in West Sussex, Gatwick or Crawley, do not accept any conditional break clauses in your lease agreement. Instead, make sure that a break clause is incorporated into the contract using the simplest of words without any conditions. Alternatively, you can also seek the assistance of commercial property consultants.