Before and During Your Move

Before You Move In

The Council will offer a prospective tenant a set of Heads of Terms. This is the Landlord’s offer to the tenant, capturing the headline terms including rent, term length, break notice, rent reviews, service charges and costs. Whilst Heads of Terms are not legally binding, they will form the basis of the lease and you should seek legal advice before agreeing. Once you have agreed and returned signed Heads of Terms, our legal team will draft the lease. It is the Council’s policy to require tenants to contract out of The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and you will be asked to sign either a simple or statutory declaration confirming acceptance. In doing so, the tenant relinquishes the right to security of tenure. Once these are accepted, you will be invoiced for the Council’s costs and deposit guarantee which must be paid, along with the signing the lease, before handover. Please note that this can be a lengthy process which must be considered to achieve the required handover and term start date. Recurring billing for rent, insurance, service charge, etc. will commence from the term start date, subject to any agreed rent free period.

Moving In

We will provide you with keys to your property along with a copy of this handbook and all applicable compliance documentation.

In addition to keeping these safe you should be aware of the following: 
As the occupier of a commercial property, you have a responsibility to comply with a number of legal and health and safety requirements. We have set out those that are most important and indicated where you can find more important information (See ‘Health and Safety Requirement’ page).

This information is provided as a guide only and you are responsible for ensuring you are adhering to all applicable legal and health and safety requirements.

Schedule of Condition 

At the start of your tenancy we will arrange for a photographic Schedule of Condition to be prepared which will form part of your lease agreement. 

The schedule of condition evidences the state of repair of the property when you take occupation, and the standard to which you have to maintain and repair the property, or improve on depending on the terms of your lease, during the course of your occupation.