Commercial lets for the short-term and flexible space-sharing arrangements

Contents

The commercial lease is a familiar creature, but is it always appropriate?  Length of occupation can be very short in the current market, and landlords will understandably baulk at substantial legal fees every time a short-term let comes to be documented.  Plus, it may look off-putting to the potential tenant to be offering a traditional 70-page lease.  Other options such as licences to occupy and tenancies at will have their place, but also come with significant disadvantages.  This module looks at the different types of documentation available, and suggests a practical approach to documenting short-term lets. Similar issues are raised by the increasingly-common requirement for flexibility as to space-sharing or co-working arrangements.  Here, though, there is an additional issue as to what may be permitted under usual lease covenants.  If sharing occupation is permitted, but sharing possession is not, how do you tell the difference?  How are these arrangements best documented?

Learning Objectives

As a result of watching this video, delegates will:

• Be able to identify situations when occupation may be appropriately documented by a licence to occupy, and how the terms of the licence agreement may reduce the risks
• Understand the nature and the pros and cons of the different types of tenancy which may be used in short-term lettings
• Recognise what arrangements may be documented without lawyer involvement, what resources are available to enable that, and what the associated risks may be
• Be aware of how arrangements for sharing space or co-working fit in with typical alienation provisions in leases, and how such arrangements can be set up so as to minimise any problems

Speaker

MARK SHELTON

Mark Shelton has worked in major commercial law firms for 30 years.  As a property litigator he worked at Linklaters, and was later a partner at Lawrence Graham.  He has acted for clients including Land Securities, British Land, Allied Dunbar Assurance, J Sainsbury plc and the Burton Group, gaining experience of the full range of contentious work in a commercial property context.

More recently he has practised as a professional support lawyer, working at DLA Piper and Eversheds, and now works freelance as a legal trainer.  He is also the author of The Lease Guide website. Outside work, he does his best to reconcile an enthusiasm for wine and cuisine with an equal enthusiasm for cycling and triathlon.