Property and tenancy clauses in a lease

Money under a lease

Bond sets the security a tenant pays and where it is held, which for residential leases is usually a state bond authority rather than the landlord's account. Rent review sets when and how rent changes, whether by a fixed percentage, CPI or a market review. Outgoings decides which property costs, such as council rates, insurance and building maintenance, are passed to a commercial tenant. State residential and retail leases acts limit all three, so each page names the state its sample follows and says where the rules differ. Read rent review before signing a lease longer than three years.

Living in or using the property

Quiet enjoyment is the tenant's right to use the property without the landlord interfering, and access and inspection sets when the landlord may still come in and how much notice is needed. Permitted use says what a commercial tenant may do on the premises, and it matters more than it looks, because a use outside it can breach the lease or planning rules. Repairs and maintenance splits responsibility for fixing things, and pets covers whether animals are allowed and on what terms, which several states now regulate for residential leases.

Changing or ending the lease

Subletting controls whether the tenant can let part or all of the property to someone else. Option to renew gives a tenant the right to extend, and the notice window to exercise it is strict, so a missed date can lose the option. Break clauses let one side end early, holding over covers a tenant staying on after the term ends, and make good sets the condition the property must be returned in. Make good is the clause behind most end of lease disputes. Each page carries sample wording and variants, and none of it is legal advice.

Every page in this collection

• Alterations clause in a UK commercial lease

  Tenants want to fit a space to their business; landlords want the building back in a lettable state. The alterations clause draws the line between what a tenant can do freely, what needs consent, and what is banned altogether.

• Bond clause in a lease: amount, lodgement and return

  Bond disputes happen in the last week of a tenancy, but they are decided by what was done in the first week: the amount taken, the lodgement and the condition report. A clause that follows the statutory steps makes the eventual claim routine.

• Break clause in a commercial lease

  Break clauses in England and Wales are read strictly, so a small arrears figure or a partition left behind can keep a tenant bound for years. The safest break for a tenant has a clear date, a clear notice method and as few conditions as the landlord will accept.

• Break lease clause: what a tenant pays to leave early

  Leaving a fixed term lease early is not illegal, but it costs money, and how much depends on which state the home is in. New South Wales sets a fixed fee; most other states make the tenant cover the landlord's actual loss.

• Continuous operation clause: sample and the go dark right

  A continuous operation clause makes a tenant keep trading, because an empty shop hurts every other shop in the centre. A go dark clause lets the tenant stop trading while paying rent. Courts in the UK and many US states rarely order a tenant to keep trading, so the real remedy is usually damages or a recapture right.

• Demolition clause in a retail lease

  A ten year lease on a shop in an old arcade looks secure until the owner decides to redevelop. A demolition clause decides whether the tenant can be made to leave early, how much warning it gets, and whether it is compensated for the fit out it paid for.

• Fair wear and tear clause in a UK tenancy

  Every flat looks a little more lived in after a year. The fair wear and tear exception separates that ordinary ageing, which the landlord absorbs, from damage, which the tenant pays for, and it is the source of most deposit disputes in the UK.

• Guarantor clause in a lease

  Students and first time renters often have no rental history, so landlords ask a parent to stand behind the lease. The guarantor clause decides how far that promise reaches, and whether it quietly continues when the lease is renewed.

• Holding over clause: staying on after the lease expires

  Holding over happens more often than either side plans, usually because renewal talks run past the expiry date. A clause that settles the rent, the notice and which terms survive stops an informal arrangement turning into an argument about what kind of tenancy exists.

• Landlord access clause: entry, inspections and notice

  Entry disputes rarely involve a dramatic intrusion. They are about an inspection booked for the wrong day, a tradesperson arriving unannounced or an open home every Saturday, and a clause that lists each reason with its notice period prevents most of them.

• Make good clause: what a tenant leaves behind

  Make good is often the largest bill a commercial tenant faces at the end of a lease, and it arrives when the business has already moved on. A clause tied to a photographed condition report, with a landlord election made well before the last day, turns an open ended obligation into a list.

• Option to purchase clause: sample, option fee and exercise

  An option to purchase locks in a price and a window: the owner promises to sell, and the buyer pays an option fee for the right to decide later. It suits buyers who need time for finance, approvals or due diligence, and owners who want a committed party without signing a contract of sale today.

• Option to renew clause: the right to a further term

  An option is worth a great deal to a tenant who has spent money on a fit out, and nothing if the notice arrives a day late. The clause has to make the window, the method of exercise and the rent for the new term impossible to misread.

• Outgoings clause: the building costs on top of rent

  On a small shop, outgoings can add a large share to the rent, and the lease particulars rarely show how the estimate was built. A clause that lists each recoverable cost, the tenant's percentage and the statement timetable lets a tenant check the invoices instead of trusting them.

• Permitted use clause: what the premises may be used for

  The permitted use looks like a single line in the lease particulars, but it shapes the tenant's ability to adapt the business, sell it or assign the lease. It can also decide whether the retail leases legislation applies at all, so it deserves more than a one word description.

• Pet clause in a lease: consent, conditions and refusals

  Pet clauses used to be one line saying no pets, and in New South Wales that line no longer works. The clause now records the consent given for a particular animal and the reasonable conditions attached, which is exactly what gets examined if the tenancy ends in a dispute.

• Quiet enjoyment clause: what a tenant is actually promised

  Most quiet enjoyment disputes in shops and offices are about building works, blocked access and unannounced visits, not noise. The clause earns its place by saying what the landlord may still do, how much warning it gives and what the tenant receives when trading is disrupted.

• Radius clause in a retail lease

  Shopping centre landlords often earn more when a tenant's customers can only find that brand in one place nearby. A radius clause protects that, but a clause that is too wide or too long can stop a growing business from expanding at all.

• Relocation clause in a lease: a retail sample

  A relocation clause lets a shopping centre or building owner move a tenant to another shop or suite, usually to redevelop part of the property. In Australian retail leases, state laws only allow it if the lease says so, and require written notice, comparable premises and payment of the tenant's reasonable relocation costs, with an option to leave instead.

• Rent increase clause for an Australian residential lease

  In an Australian residential tenancy, a landlord generally cannot raise the rent during a fixed term unless the lease says so and states how the increase is worked out. Across the larger states, rent can now rise no more than once every 12 months, and in Victoria the written notice must be given at least 90 days ahead from 25 November 2025.

• Rent review clause: fixed, CPI or market

  A rent review looks like arithmetic until the market moves the wrong way. The method, the dates and what happens when the parties disagree about market rent decide whether a tenant can keep trading in year four, so they deserve more attention than the starting rent.

• Repairs and maintenance clause: who fixes what in a lease

  Most repair disputes are about one expensive item, usually air conditioning, a roof leak or a cool room, and whether it is structure, plant or wear and tear. A clause that lists the items and the procedure for urgent failures settles the question before the item breaks.

• Service charge clause in a UK commercial lease

  In a multi let office building, the rent covers the space, and the service charge covers everything around it: cleaning, security, lifts, repairs to the roof. The clause decides how much of those costs land on each tenant, and which ones never should.

• Stamp duty clause: who pays duty in an Australian contract

  Stamp duty, now usually called transfer duty, is a state tax on transfers of land and some other property. The law makes a particular party liable, usually the buyer, but contracts often say who actually bears it, and how it is shared when two people buy together. A stamp duty clause settles that before the duty notice arrives.

• Sublease clause: renting the premises on to someone else

  A sublease lets a tenant with surplus space recover some of its rent without giving up the lease, which is why landlords care who moves in. The clause decides whether consent can be refused at will, what the landlord may charge for considering a request and who answers for the subtenant.

• Turnover rent clause: base rent plus a share of sales

  Turnover rent lets a landlord share in a tenant's good years and softens the bad ones for the tenant. Almost every dispute about it comes down to two questions: what counts as turnover, and how the landlord can check the figures.

• Vacant possession clause: sample for sales and leases

  Vacant possession means handing over a property with nobody living or trading in it and nothing left behind that gets in the way of using it. A vacant possession clause in a sale contract or option makes it a condition of settlement, and the seller must sort out any tenant first, within the tenancy law's notice rules.