Leaving leased premises means ending the lease, not just moving out. You owe rent, service charge and business rates until the lease ends or someone else takes it over, so the date the lease ends matters more than the date you leave.
Find out how your lease can end
Read your lease for its end date, any break clause and what it says about repair, alterations and handing back the premises. A commercial lease usually runs to its end date unless it has a break clause.
If you want to leave before the end date and there is no break clause, you must keep paying rent unless your landlord agrees to a surrender (an agreed early end, recorded in a legal document) or lets you assign the lease to another business. You can sublet only if the lease allows it, and you stay responsible to your landlord for the rent whether or not your subtenant pays you.
If your lease is protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and you are still in occupation when it expires, it does not end on that date. It carries on unless you give your landlord written notice, at least 3 months before the expiry date, that you do not want it continued. Without that notice you stay liable after you have left. The lease should say whether it is protected.
Serve a break notice exactly
A break clause is the one right you can lose by a small mistake, so treat the notice as a legal document and check it against the clause before it goes.
Deal with repairs before you go
Your landlord can claim for repairs, redecoration and reinstatement of alterations that the lease required of you. Once the lease ends you cannot go back in to do the work, so any claim is for money.
Find any schedule of condition attached to the lease, a dated record of how the premises looked when you took them, because depending on the lease it can limit what you must repair. Ask a surveyor to inspect well before you leave and list what the lease requires, then do the work, or agree a price with your landlord, while you still have access. Keep photographs and receipts.
A claim after the lease ends should follow a court protocol with a set timetable.
Hand back the premises
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Clear the premises
Remove your stock, furniture and signage, and anything else the lease requires you to take out. Reinstate any alterations the lease requires you to reverse.
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Pay what you owe
Pay rent and service charge up to the end date, and settle any agreed repair costs.
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Return the keys and access cards
Giving back the keys can, together with other conduct, be treated as an implied surrender, but do not rely on that.
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Agree the end in writing
Record the end date and what each of you accepts, so there is no dispute later about whether the lease ended.
Tell the council and keep an eye on business rates
Business rates for empty premises fall on the person entitled to possession, which is you for as long as you hold the lease. Tell your council when the premises become empty and ask what relief applies. After any relief ends, you pay full rates until the lease ends or passes to someone else.
Get your deposit back
If you paid a rent deposit, how and when you get it back depends on your lease and any separate deposit deed. Settle any dilapidations claim first, because your landlord can hold the deposit until you do.
Close down your running costs
Take final meter readings, close or transfer your utilities and cancel services you will no longer use, then redirect your post. Keep the lease, the notices you served, the handover record and proof of payment for as long as a claim against you could be made.
Ending a commercial property lease early (opens in a new tab)
Legal basis
Primary legislation and key regulations