Breaking a Lease

A longer lease will normally include a break clause, e.g. a 10 year lease might have a break at 5 years, enabling you to leave the premises then should you so wish. However, failure to serve legal notices correctly will have dire consequences for the tenant.

This is a specialist area requiring bespoke surveying and legal advice. We have these specialisms within the Warwick Bookman & Associates team.

The items given below are merely an indication of terms that may need to be complied with, advice should always be sought specific to your own particular circumstances.

Your lease contains vital information

The terms that were documented when you completed your lease will include information on breaking your lease, this is why it is so important that the initial process is undertaken thoroughly and with the tenant’s rights in mind.

A number of legal cases in recent years have gone in the landlord’s favour when seemingly minor infringements by tenants have meant that the break is not legally served.

The importance of serving a break notice correctly

In order to break your lease, you must have fully complied with its terms; below is a set of bullet points to assist you. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list, terms will depend on your own lease.

  1. Normally, you must give at least 6 months’ written notice, best advice is to ask your solicitor to check your lease in good time to ensure the wording is correct and the break clause is clear from ambiguity.
  2.  If the notice is served late and / or not in the exact form specified and to the correct person(s) you will have lost your right to break the lease.
  3. You must comply with all your covenants under the terms of your lease and have paid all the required rent and any interest that may have become due whether demanded or not as any under payment will invalidate your break.
  4. You must fully comply in ‘yielding up’ the premises (i.e. dilapidations clause). This will normally involve advice from a surveyor and or building surveyor as well as specialist legal advice.

The penalty of not serving a break correctly

If your break clause is not served correctly, your lease will continue and you will be liable for rent, rates and service charge to the end of the term, regardless of whether or not you wish to continue in occupation.