Before entering into a lease agreement, the tenant should negotiate the option to remove trade fixtures and leave the premises as the tenant had entered it.
This article discusses the importance of negotiating the removal and restoration provisions of the commercial lease as a tenant. This can have implications both at the beginning and the end of a commercial lease. At the end, a tenant would want to keep the items they installed on the premises to sell or re-use in a new premises, also, they may want to try to place the cost of restoration at the beginning of the lease on the landlord by requiring that the landlord’s work section includes removing everything that a previous tenant already installed (that will not be of use to the new tenant).
Commercial tenants can often negotiate which party will bear the cost of removing fixtures from the previous tenant. If the previous tenant has made a number of installations and renovations, this could be onerous for the new tenant.
Takeaway:
- Tenants should consider whether they would like to keep their trade fixtures upon the expiration of a lease agreement. If so, tenants should make it clear in the agreement