Renting a commercial property

If you'd like to rent a commercial property from Lincolnshire Co-op, you'll normally be asked for:

• Proof of identity.
• Completion of a form that will enable us to carry out a credit check. This will require you to provide details of all addresses that you have lived at and names by which you have been known during the last 5 years.
• Details of at least two people who we can contract to obtain references. These should not be relatives and where possible they should include:
  • Your previous landlord
  • Your employer (unless self employed)
  • One or more trade suppliers
• A bank reference.
• If you're starting a new business, a copy of your business plan.
• If you're renting a business property and would like the lease to be held in the company name you must be able to provide satisfactory trading accounts for the last three years. If you're unable to do so, this doesn't necessarily mean that your application will be declined but, it is likely that one or more of the company directors, or another suitable party, will be asked to be a joint tenant on the lease.

We ask for this information to satisfy ourselves that you'll be a suitable tenant for a particular property. What is satisfactory will depend upon the property concerned and the terms of the lease.

When you rent a property from us you will be given a copy of the lease.

This contains a written record of the responsibilities and liabilities of both the landlord and tenant. It also says how much rent is due, when it needs to be paid and who is responsible for property repairs.

A lease is a legal document setting out the agreed terms by which you may occupy the property. Once the lease is signed by both the landlord and tenant, and documents have been exchanged, it is binding and cannot be changed, other than by mutual agreement.

It's really important that you fully understand your contractual obligations before you sign. The rights and responsibilities of those occupying commercial properties are quite different to those occupying residential properties. You may wish to appoint a solicitor to advise you.

We'd strongly recommend that you keep a copy of your lease to hand throughout your tenancy as it is useful to be able to refer to it. If your lease is held be a third party, they may charge you for access to it.

Most leases are prepared individually for a particular property based on terms that are agreed between you (as tenant) and ourselves (as landlord) however, the leases of units on our industrial sites are simple standard agreements to keep costs minimum.

Useful information about tenant responsibilities when renting business premises is provided by the government (via Gov.uk) and the Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSE). Amongst other things these include:

• the need to carry out a risk assessment
• responsibilities relating to fire safety
• safety of electrical appliances and installations
• gas safety
• asbestos management

Commercial tenants should also be aware of the requirements of The Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992.

Among these regulations is a requirement for the regular maintenance of certain property features, including shutters and auto doors. Further information can be found here.

If you want to find out what you should do if you'd like to alter the property, check out our commercial property FAQs.

For most of our commercial properties, we require rent to be paid quarterly in advance. This reduces our administration costs and enables us to keep rents at a competitive level.

When you take a lease it's important that you arrange for payment of the specified rent to be made in time for us to receive it on the day that it is due. Interest may be payable if it's late.

We prefer rent to be paid by standing order or direct debit. It's a requirement when taking a lease on some of our properties.

Please remember that, in law, rent is due whether demanded or not. We issue invoices for commercial property rents but failure to receive one is not a valid reason for non-payment.

You can find out more about how we set commercial rents here.

To help encourage start up businesses, we offer different terms for some units on our small industrial estates.

When you move into your property, please remember to take meter readings and ask utility companies to change the supplies into your name.

You will also need to tell the local council so that the Business Rate accounts are put into your name.

When your lease ends and you leave the property, you'll need to take meter readings once again and inform the utility companies and the relevant local authority that you have moved.

If you have changed utility supplier, please let us know who the supply has been moved to.

You can find out more about what to do when you're leaving a property you rent from us in our commercial property FAQs.