How a commercial lease changes hands — who remains on the hook after assignment, when the landlord must consent, and the steps that take the deal through to completion.
An assignment passes the lease to a new tenant, but the outgoing tenant does not always walk away free of it. This chapter starts with the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 divide between old and new leases and what it means for the assignor's continuing liability, then moves to authorised guarantee agreements and the protections for former tenants — the s 17 notice and the right to an overriding lease. It then turns to landlord's consent: the provisos implied into qualified covenants against assignment, the statutory duties on a landlord receiving an application, and the licence to assign that records the consent. The closing sections cover the conveyancing itself — deduction of title, enquiries and pre-completion searches, the contract and deed of assignment, and the completion and post-completion steps from SDLT through to registration.
