When a solicitor advises on a commercial lease, three obligations sit at its heart: who pays rent, who keeps the building in repair, and who insures it. How these burdens are allocated shapes the deal for both landlord and tenant, and the precise wording of each covenant decides who pays — sometimes for very large works. Reading and drafting these clauses well is core day-to-day work in property practice, and clients rely on you to spot where the risk really falls.
This lesson builds your understanding step by step:
- Allocation of Burdens and the FRI Lease — how rent, repair and insurance are divided, and what a full repairing and insuring lease means for leases of the whole and of part.
- The Repairing Covenant — what 'keep in repair' actually requires and how the standard of repair is set.
- Repair, Renewal and Inherent Defects — where repair ends and renewal begins, and how a schedule of condition limits liability.
- Enforcing the Repairing Covenant — the damages cap, statutory protections, self-help clauses and forfeiture.
- Rent, Review and Arrears — payment without set-off, upward-only reviews, and recovering unpaid rent.
- Insurance, Destruction and Service Charges — rent suspension, who bears loss when a building is damaged, and recovering costs in multi-let buildings.