Make your Free Commercial Lease Agreement

If you are a landlord, you can make and sign Commercial Leases to protect yourself when offering commercial rental property to business tenants. By agreeing to this contract, you and the other signer will be more likely to have the same set of expectations. When ready, you can tap or click on "Make document" to take a closer look at the sample Commercial Lease. This lease is suitable for office space, restaurants, retail space, industrial real estate, warehouses and other business locations.

As with any legal contract, a Commercial Property Lease will not be legally binding until everyone has signed it. Different from a generic Commercial Lease template that you may download elsewhere, your rental contract comes with the option of Document Defense^®, so an attorney in our network can review the situation and take action if you need to demand payment or experience another issue.

Regardless of whether the rental is short- or long-term, creating documentation of your commitments to those renting from you is important. The following benefits might inform your decision-making:

• The landlord and tenant(s) know what they are responsible for
• All parties know when rent payments are expected
• There are no surprises about how long the rental will last

If you don't have a Commercial Property Lease, you and the tenant may suffer one or more of these unwanted issues: not being paid on time, unexpected modifications, and, unfortunately, very little recourse if something goes wrong.

The details that you should plan to include in your Commercial Lease are:

• The address and description of your commercial property
• Your tenant's contact information
• How rent payments should be made
• How long the tenancy will last and whether it will auto-renew
• What kind of amenities and/or utilities will be included
• Who will be responsible for property taxes

As you may expect, Commercial Leases made with Rocket Lawyer also include rules around late rent, early termination, and acceptable use of the property. While building your document, you'll also be able to add more specifics related to furnishings, insurance requirements, remodeling, and maintenance procedures. With the document tool, you are able to add further custom editing, as needed.

Fortunately, you will not have to hire a traditional lawyer to get your agreement in writing. With the document tools on Rocket Lawyer, anyone can produce a Commercial Lease for free online today. Your agreement is built section by section, so you can be certain that it contains all of the appropriate information. Simply tap or click on the button labeled "Make Document" to begin.

Upon completing this Commercial Lease, you will be able to retrieve it from your account at any time and place. Feel free to take any of the following actions with your contract: making edits, getting digital signatures with RocketSign^®, printing it out, or downloading it as a Word or PDF document. Attached alongside each Commercial Lease, there will be a series of helpful tips to follow while finalizing your document. As a best practice, you should give a copy of your signed agreement to the other party. You should also feel free to browse our library of real estate legal documents.

Laws often change over time. If you have any concerns or hesitations related to property rental laws, you can talk to a lawyer today. Getting a legal professional to check your Commercial Lease could be fairly time-consuming. Sometimes a lawyer will not even accept requests to review a rental contract if they didn't work on it. In the event that an attorney does decide to provide feedback about your contract, they would still charge their standard fees to do it. An easier alternative would be via attorney services at Rocket Lawyer. If you become a Premium member, you can get your documents looked at by an experienced real estate attorney. Whether you decide to produce another Commercial Property Lease or other legal documents from our library, Rocket Lawyer is here for you.

As a commercial property owner, it can be beneficial to offer a multi-year lease. Common durations are three, five, or even ten years. In exchange for committing to a long lease, savvy tenants may expect or ask for a discount on the monthly rent. As you consider offering a multi-year lease, here are a few questions to keep in mind:

• How well-established is the tenant business? Is it likely to remain active for the full lease term?
• How long can I manage to pay my mortgage if the tenant doesn't pay rent?
• Does location matter to the tenant and would they pay as a result?
• What kind of alterations or improvements to the property are being requested? How much are you willing to pay for as the property owner?
• What will happen if the tenant needs to move from the property before the end of the lease?

Deposit amounts for commercial properties vary. Most property managers will ask for the equivalent of about one to two months of the rent amount. The amount charged often varies by the market, tenant's credit and the cost of improvements (or custom alterations) before occupying. For the most part, the owner of the property typically will want to be able to cover potential losses if the tenant defaults or damages the property. Some may even choose to charge as much as six times the rent for the deposit in certain markets. Unlike residential leases, there are often no legal limitations on what can be charged for the deposit.

The choice is up to you. While there may be benefits from working with a commercial broker, you do not always need to work with one. If you only have one or two properties, you can likely handle them yourself and save on fees. However if you have a lot of properties to manage, you may benefit from hiring a broker to help you find tenants and conduct negotiations.