How a commercial lease divides the cost of the building between landlord and tenant — through rent, repairing obligations and insurance — and what happens when those obligations are broken.
Whether a lease is a good bargain for the tenant turns largely on who pays for what, and the drafting of a few key covenants. This chapter opens with the allocation of financial burdens under the full repairing and insuring lease, before examining the repairing covenant itself: what 'keep in repair' demands, the required standard, and the line between repair, renewal and inherent defects, including how a schedule of condition softens the obligation. It then turns to enforcement — the statutory cap on damages, the Leasehold Property (Repairs) Act 1938, Jervis v Harris clauses and the route to forfeiture — followed by rent itself, including set-off, upward only open market reviews and Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery. It closes with insurance and destruction of the premises, rent suspension, uninsured risks, and the service charge machinery in a lease of part.
