Do we have to pay to have our business premises put right when we leave?

The starting point is always to refer to the lease or the licence for alterations which was put into place when the alterations were carried out. As a general rule of thumb, most leases will require the property to be reinstated and put back into the state of repair it was when you took over, so you will normally be required to remove alterations and put the premises into a good state of repair.

The other thing to be aware of in terms of that is that there can be other obligations in the lease when it comes to an end, such as a final redecoration could be required or you might have to repair or replace the carpets and generally put the property back into a good state of repair. The starting point is to always look at the lease but the other thing you need to do is also talk to your landlord because some alterations may actually be an improvement to the premises and the landlord may not require those to be reinstated at all. In summary, look at the lease or the licence for alterations to see what that says and talk to your landlord and see what they require. 

Here is a video recorded by Head of Commercial Property, Alison Turner:

For more information, contact our Commercial Property Team on 01302 341414 or fill out our online enquiry form.

We have more articles on our website relating to Commercial Property, here are three that you may find useful:

• FRI lease 
• A guide to the process of a Commercial Lease
• Difference between commercial and residential property