Consider this if…
- You have agreed a rent reduction, deferral or repayment arrangement
- You are extending the term or adding an option
- You are taking additional space, or giving some back
- The permitted use needs to change
- Something was agreed informally and you want it recorded properly
- You are asked to sign a deed of variation and want it checked
How it works
Tell us what has been agreed
The lease, and whatever correspondence records the change. If nothing has been agreed yet, tell us what you want and we will work out how it should be structured.
Today
We check the change is possible
Whether the lease permits it, whether a guarantor's or mortgagee's consent is needed, and whether a variation is the right instrument or a new lease is cleaner.
First thing we do
We draft the deed of variation
Precisely what changes, from when, what happens at the end of any temporary arrangement, and confirmation that everything else in the lease continues unchanged.
Quoted before we start
We deal with the formalities
Guarantor and security positions, and whether registration or duty needs to be addressed for the variation you are making.
With the drafting
Fee
Quoted in writing before we start
GST inclusive
We quote a fixed fee in writing before any work begins.
The change everybody agrees and nobody records
Most lease variations are agreed in good faith between people who get on. Rent comes down for six months while trade recovers. The tenant takes the storeroom next door. The term is extended by two years rather than negotiating a new lease.
The arrangement then survives perfectly well for as long as the relationship and the ownership stay the same. What breaks it is change: the building is sold and the new owner has never seen the email; the agent who agreed it has moved on; the business is sold and the buyer's solicitor asks to see the lease, which says something different from what is actually happening.
At that point the only question is what can be proved.
What a deed of variation should do
Identify precisely what changes. The clause, the figure, the dates. Not "rent to be reduced for a while".
Say when it starts and, if temporary, when it ends. And what the position is the day after it ends — does rent revert, does anything become repayable, on what schedule.
Distinguish a waiver from a deferral. Rent forgiven and rent postponed are very different, and the difference is usually the single largest number in the document.
Confirm everything else continues. So there is no argument that the variation displaced other terms.
Bring in the right parties. Guarantors in particular, and any mortgagee where their position is affected.
Variation or new lease
Layering variations onto an old lease works for small changes. Once the term, the premises or the rent structure has materially changed, a new lease is usually cleaner — one document that says what the deal now is, rather than three that have to be read together.
We will say which we think is right for your situation. Where a new lease is the answer, the review work runs the same way as any other commercial lease review.
Formalities worth checking
Registration and duty do not arise on every variation, but they do arise on some, and the answer depends on what is being changed rather than on the fact that a variation exists. Where the lease is registered, or where the term or premises are changing, we check the position before the document is signed.
If it has already been agreed informally
Document it now rather than later. Recording an existing arrangement while both parties agree what it was is a small piece of work. Reconstructing it afterwards, from correspondence, when one side has a reason to remember it differently, is a dispute.
Frequently asked questions
Can a lease be varied by email?
Sometimes an exchange of emails will be enough to vary terms, and sometimes it will not — it depends on the lease, on what was said, and on what the parties then did. The problem is that you only find out which when it matters. A short deed of variation costs very little next to arguing about an email chain.
Do I need a new lease instead?
Where the changes are substantial — a materially different term, different premises, a restructured rent — a new lease is often cleaner than layering variations on an old document. We will tell you which is better for what you are trying to do.
We agreed a rent reduction. What should the document say?
Exactly what the reduced rent is, the period it applies to, what happens at the end of that period, whether the reduction is a waiver or a deferral, and if deferred, how and when it is repaid. Arrangements that do not say what happens at the end produce the next dispute.
Does a guarantor need to be involved?
Usually yes, and it is regularly overlooked. Varying the obligations that were guaranteed without bringing the guarantor in can affect the guarantee, which matters to a landlord. Any mortgagee of the land may also need to be considered.
Does a variation need to be registered, and is duty payable?
That depends on the lease and on the nature of the change — extending a term or altering the premises raises different questions from a temporary rent reduction. We check the position for your variation rather than assuming it either way.
The landlord wants to vary the lease as a condition of something else.
That happens most often around consents — to an assignment, a subletting or works. Consent and variation are separate things. Agreeing to a variation may still suit you commercially, but it should be a decision rather than a condition you did not notice.
Related services
Send the lease and whatever records what you agreed.
Have the variation documented