For trainees and junior lawyers · English law

Commercial Leases

Until it needs the space itself, a bike maker lets its spare floor to a design studio. You act for the landlord.

How a business rents space, taught through one lease, clause by clause.

An office block drawn cut open, like a doll's house. Downstairs the bike maker's office carries on: a desk, an empty chair, a clock at twelve and a framed drawing of a bicycle. Upstairs the floor is empty but for one man seen from behind, a ring of keys in his hand, looking at the windows. A copper line runs round the inside of the upper floor only, on the carpet, the inner faces of the walls and the ceiling tiles, inside the hatched walls, slabs and roof. A small bird sits on the parapet; an electric bicycle stands by the door.

You will be able to:

  • Read a commercial lease and say what each clause does
  • Explain what the landlord and the tenant each want, and why
  • Follow a lease from the first offer to its registration

10 chapters with tests · a final exam · a certificate · about 4 hours in all · published 2 October 2026

Start Chapter 1

Chapters

Module 1

The Letting

Module 2

The Tenant’s Money

Module 3

The Tenant’s Promises

Module 4

The End, and the Paper

One case runs through every chapter: a bike maker lets a spare office floor to a design studio. Read the full lease →

Glossary: every term in plain English · Final exam: 30 questions, open book