Legal Advice for Commercial Property Agreements

To ensure we provide you with the best possible service right from the start, our initial onboarding process involves clearly defining the scope of our work together and establishing our agreement. This includes outlining the deliverables and confirming the investment (our standard terms are provided below). We also take care of setting up your dedicated client record and generating your initial invoice, as we require prepayment for new clients.

Once these essential steps are complete, we can typically schedule the production of your agreement within a few hours, depending on our current workflow. We aim to begin working with new clients within approximately one working week.

Commercial property agreements are the legal documents that govern how land or buildings are used, transferred, developed or occupied. They set out the rights, obligations, and risks of each party involved. Common types of agreements include:

• Leases: Long-term arrangements for occupying property, setting out rent, responsibilities, and renewal terms.
• Licences to Occupy: Shorter-term or more flexible arrangements, often used for shared spaces or temporary use.
• Agreements for Lease: Contracts that commit parties to enter into a lease at a future date, usually after conditions like planning consent or building works are satisfied.
• Options and Pre-emption Agreements: Giving a party the right to buy or sell property under set terms, often used in development or joint venture scenarios.
• Development Agreements: Structuring land assembly, planning obligations, construction phases and profit-sharing arrangements.
• Deeds of Easement or Covenants: Governing access rights, services, or restrictions on use.
• Sale and Leaseback Agreements: Enabling a business to release capital by selling its property while remaining in occupation.

Each of these carries different implications, not just legally, but commercially. That’s why it’s so important to seek legal advice at an early stage—ideally before heads of terms are signed.

Our Commercial Property Team has wide-ranging experience across the full spectrum of property-related agreements. Whether you’re a landlord, tenant, developer, investor or landowner, we can help you understand your rights and obligations, avoid common pitfalls, and negotiate terms that work for you.

• Commercial leases (landlord or tenant side)
• Licence to occupy
• Agreement for lease
• Sale and leaseback arrangements
• Option and pre-emption agreements
• Development and promotion agreements
• Joint venture arrangements
• Deeds of easement and restrictive covenants
• Assignments and subletting
• Rent deposit deeds and guarantor agreements

Many commercial property transactions involve more than just signing a single contract. In practice, it’s often not possible to go straight from agreeing terms to completing the deal. This is especially true where the arrangement includes multiple elements, such as:

• The sale of a company alongside the lease of its property
• Conditional agreements dependent on planning permission, funding or board approval
• Deals involving the payment of another party’s costs
• Transactions where key details are still to be worked out, even after the structure is agreed

In these cases, a more general or preliminary agreement may be needed before the main property documentation can be finalised. This kind of contract sets out how the parties will proceed towards the final transaction, including timelines, conditions, and responsibilities.

At Mounteney Solicitors, we assist by drafting the necessary contracts in accordance with the terms provided to us. It’s important to note that this service is limited to drafting—we do not act in the negotiation of those terms, but rather ensure they are legally sound and correctly reflected in the final documentation.

Where multiple stages or transaction types need to be coordinated—such as commercial lease agreements following a company sale, or the triggering of options based on future events—we ensure that all legal documents work together as a coherent and enforceable structure.

This level of complexity is why early legal advice is essential, particularly before signing any heads of terms or making binding commitments. Even when all parties are commercially aligned, a poorly structured deal can unravel if not underpinned by the right legal framework.