You've been renting out one of your Richmond, Virginia, properties to a business owner for a few months. Since signing the lease, they've been late on their rent payments more than once.
It sounds like you need to sit down with them to have a little talk about the lease agreement. Maybe they don't understand when their due date is.
Rent details are a common clause in commercial lease agreements. To keep your tenant from breaking the lease and secure your income, you'll need to make sure they understand this clause, along with a few others. Continue reading to learn more.
Lease Terms
Will your tenant have a year-long lease, or are you planning to put them on a month-to-month agreement? This is something that you'll need to highlight because it will determine how they pay you.
After a while of operating out of your commercial property, the tenant may decide that it's not the right type of building for their business. If they don't know their lease length, they won't know when they can pack up and move.
Your tenant may not want to get locked into a long lease term. If you surprise them with a year-long lease without telling them, you risk ruining your relationship.
Rental Amount
The rental amount should be front and center on the lease. Your tenant needs to know how they can pay their rent. Do you have an app or do you only take money orders?
Most landlords increase the rent at the end of the year when a tenant renews their lease. If that's your intention, be sure to include this information in the lease clause.
Security Deposit
Almost every landlord requires tenants to pay a security deposit and two months' rent outright. How much the occupant has to pay should be in the lease clause.
The lease agreement should also tell tenants what they need to do to get their security deposit back once their lease ends.
Parties
The commercial lease needs to include the name and address of anyone involved with the lease. That includes you, as the landlord, and the tenant.
The name of the tenant's LLC or corporation should be included in the lease as well.
Use
If you have restrictions on how a tenant can use the rental space, this information should be included in the lease. Usage clauses almost always come hand in hand with exclusivity clauses.
This means that you can't rent out a space in the property to two companies that run the same type of business.
Ensure the lease has a clause that includes sign usage, and let tenants know what type of improvements they're allowed to make to the space.
Understanding Common Clauses in Commercial Lease Agreements
As you can see, there are a lot of clauses that need to be included in commercial lease agreements. If tenants don't know how they're allowed to use the space or how much rent they're required to pay, it will cause a lot of unhappy surprises later.
Do you need help creating your lease agreement and managing your commercial property? PMI Richmond has professionals who specialize in managing properties and saving landlords money in Richmond, Virginia. Contact us to learn more about our services.
