Commercial landlord and tenant
Commercial lease renewal
Legal work to renew a business lease by agreement or under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, including section 25 notices and section 26 requests.
This work depends on the details, so our team prepares a quote for you, usually within one working day.
If you have received a section 25 notice or a section 26 request, note the date it arrived and send it to a solicitor straight away. The deadlines that follow run whether or not anyone is negotiating.
When a commercial lease is nearing its end, most tenants want to know whether they can stay and on what terms, and most landlords want to decide whether to offer a new lease, change the terms or take the premises back. If the lease is protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, a formal process of notices and deadlines shapes that conversation.
Landlords and tenants use this service to renew a business lease, whether the renewal is agreed informally or runs under the 1954 Act. Your solicitor checks whether the Act applies, serves or responds to the right notice at the right time, protects the court deadline and negotiates the new lease.
Renewals range from a simple new lease to a contested court process, so there is no instant price. Tell us when your lease ends and whether any notice has been served, and our team will normally send a tailored quote within one working day.
What is involved
A renewal usually follows this path:
- Checking protection: confirming whether the lease is inside the 1954 Act or was validly contracted out (agreed to sit outside it), and whether the tenant occupies the premises for its business.
- Starting the process: the landlord can serve a section 25 notice, given between 6 and 12 months before the termination date it states, either proposing new terms or opposing a renewal. Alternatively, the tenant can serve a section 26 request, proposing a new lease that starts between 6 and 12 months after the request.
- Responding: a landlord that wants to oppose a tenant's request must serve a counter-notice within two months, stating its grounds.
- Protecting the deadline: an application to court must be made by the termination date in the landlord's notice, or before the start date in the tenant's request, unless both sides agree to extend it, which should be done in writing before it passes.
- Negotiating: agreeing the rent, length, repair and other terms, often with surveyors advising on the rent. If agreement is not possible, the court can decide, including granting a lease of up to 15 years.
- Interim rent: considering whether to ask the court to set a rent for the period while the old lease continues.
- Completing: signing the new lease, filing any land transaction return and registering it if it is for more than seven years.
What the legal fee covers
- Checking whether the lease has 1954 Act protection
- Preparing and serving a section 25 notice or section 26 request
- Responding to a notice or request from the other side
- Diarising the court deadline and agreeing any extensions
- Negotiating the terms of the new lease
- Preparing or checking the draft renewal lease
- Signing and completing the renewal lease, with any tax return
Costs you may see on top
- Court fees and litigation costs, if a renewal claim is issued
- A surveyor's advice on the market rent for the new lease
- Property tax on the rent of the new lease, where it is high enough to be taxed
- Registration fees if the renewal lease is longer than seven years
- Statutory compensation, if a landlord recovers the premises on certain no-fault grounds
- The other side's costs, if the lease or a court order requires you to pay them
What to have ready
- The current lease, with any variations and side letters
- Any section 25 notice or section 26 request already served, with the date it arrived
- The date the current term ends
- How the premises are used and who occupies them
- Your plans: stay, leave, change the space or redevelop
- The current rent and service charge figures
- Contact details for your surveyor or agent, if you have one
How long it takes
An agreed renewal, where both sides want a new lease and the terms are close, often completes in 2 to 4 months. Under the 1954 Act the notices themselves must give 6 to 12 months' notice, so the formal process commonly starts a year or more before the lease ends.
Where the terms are disputed, court proceedings can add many months, although cases often settle before a hearing. Starting early, ideally 12 to 18 months before the term ends, gives you the most choice and avoids rushed decisions close to a deadline.
Things to watch for
- Never let the court deadline pass by accident. If no claim is issued and no extension agreed in time, a protected tenant can lose the right to a new lease altogether.
- Notices must be in the prescribed form and served correctly. A section 25 notice with the wrong date, or one served on the wrong person, can be invalid, so take advice before relying on one.
- Once the landlord has served a section 25 notice, the tenant cannot serve a section 26 request, and the reverse also applies, so timing matters. A tenant who expects the rent to fall may prefer to move first.
- If the lease was contracted out of the 1954 Act, there is no statutory right to renew. The tenant must leave when the term ends unless a new lease is agreed, so negotiations should start well in advance.
- A tenant who does not want to renew should give at least three months' written notice before the term ends, or move out before then, to stop the lease continuing.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a section 25 notice and a section 26 request?
A section 25 notice is served by the landlord to end a protected lease, either proposing terms for a new one or saying it will oppose renewal. A section 26 request is served by the tenant, asking for a new lease and proposing terms. Both must give between 6 and 12 months' notice, and both start the clock on the court deadline. You can read section 25 of the Act on legislation.gov.uk.
On what grounds can a landlord refuse to renew?
The 1954 Act lists them. They include the tenant's failure to repair, persistent late payment of rent or other serious breaches, an offer of suitable alternative premises, the landlord's intention to redevelop and its intention to occupy the premises itself. Where the landlord relies on a no-fault ground, such as redevelopment or its own occupation, the tenant is usually entitled to statutory compensation.
What happens if the lease ends and nobody does anything?
If the lease is protected by the 1954 Act, it does not end on its expiry date. It continues on the same terms, including the same rent, until it is ended in one of the ways the Act allows. That can suit a tenant when rents are rising, but either side can start the formal process at any time, so it is not permanent security.
Does the 1954 Act apply in Northern Ireland?
No. Northern Ireland has its own business tenancy legislation with different procedures, so use a solicitor who practises there. See the lease renewals guide for more.
Who does the work
Your matter is handled by a law firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers or CILEx Regulation, or in Northern Ireland by a solicitor regulated by the Law Society of Northern Ireland. At the moment the law firms on our panel act for property in England and Wales, so for property in Northern Ireland we tell you whether a firm can act for you before we pass your details to anyone. The firm confirms who will work on your file, their experience and its terms before you instruct it. How we choose our firms.