Step one: check your security of tenure
Look for a contracting-out agreement — a landlord's warning notice and a tenant declaration made before the lease was completed. Its presence or absence changes your entire negotiating position, and it is the first document I ask for.
The renewal timetable
Under the Act, either party can start the process: the landlord by Section 25 notice, the tenant by Section 26 request. Both need between six and twelve months' notice, and both fix the earliest date the current tenancy can end. Court proceedings must be issued before that date unless the parties agree an extension in writing.
What the new lease looks like
The court's default is a lease on similar terms to the old one, for up to fifteen years, at an open market rent disregarding your own occupation, goodwill and tenant improvements. In practice almost every renewal settles by agreement — but the statutory default is the backstop that shapes what is achievable.
Common questions
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Chris McGarrigle MRICS, chartered since 1989, acting for occupiers across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
chris@mcgarrigle.comRelated guides
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Lease RenewalPart II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 explained for business tenants: security of tenure, Sections 25, 26 and 30, interim rent and compensation.
- Section 25 NoticeReceived a Section 25 notice? What it means, the difference between friendly and hostile notices, the deadlines that bind you and how to respond.
- Commercial Lease ExpiryWhat to do before a commercial lease expires: renewal rights, break notices, dilapidations exposure, reinstatement and exit planning.
- Interim RentInterim rent under Sections 24A to 24D of the 1954 Act: who can apply, when it starts, how it is valued and when it differs from the new lease rent.
- Contracting Out of the 1954 ActHow a lease is excluded from 1954 Act security of tenure, the warning notice and declaration procedure, what a tenant loses, and when to resist it.