Guide on How to Negotiate a Business Lease
1. You can reduce the amount of months on the lease. If you don’t like the amount of months that you have to rent the suite then you can usually change it. Some landlords will even give you a month to month lease. You can even get a six month lease. The shorter amount of months the lease than it is better. You don’t want to be stuck in a place if you don’t like it after a few months.
2. You can negotiate on the deposit. Most landlords understand that a business usually won’t do much damage in a suite since it is basically just a place to work at each day. You can also get a discount on the deposit if you agree to clean it before you move in and after you move out. Some landlords hire a cleaning service instead of cleaning the suites or building themselves.
3. Make sure to change any restrictions about signs to advertise your business. Some landlords don’t let you put advertisements on the windows in suites or on the outside of the building about your company. Read the lease to see if there are any other restrictions regarding that.
4. Make sure to read the lease to see if your business is required to be open so many hours a day. You don’t want to move into a place that requires your business hours to be open all the time like how some factory malls are. You want to be able to have your own hours so you can have more freedom to run as your business the way that you want to.
5. You can negotiate the parking vehicles regulations. Some leases only let you have like one or two assigned parking place per suite that is rented out by companies. Make sure that you have plenty of parking available. You don’t want the landlord to threaten to have the vehicles towed out.
If you have a landlord that basically refuses to work with you about changes on the lease then you most likely don’t want to rent from them. You want to rent from an landlord that is willing to accept changes regarding the lease. You need to make sure that your landlord is willing to work with you.
If they have many hidden fees or extra charges such as application fees then you shouldn’t rent from them. If they nickel and dime you for every little thing that you shouldn’t rent from them either. You will have more success will a friendly landlord. The most important thing is to always have an attorney to look at a lease before you sign it. When reading a lease make sure to pay attention to the way which words are used and the way it does sound. Good Luck!
