Prepare your lease documentation

A lease is a legal document to show an agreement between the developer (landlord) and the users of a property or equipment. Ownership of the property or equipment should remain with the developer throughout the period of the lease.

Although formal legal advice will be needed before a lease is finalised, a great deal of time can be spent by legal advisers developing the documentation for an individual project when standard documents are commonly available. This section gives examples of these standard documents.

Leases are a complex area of the law and legal advice from firms specialising in health and social care premises should always be taken before a lease for a building or equipment is finalised.

The Primary Care Premises Forum has published some standard 'heads of terms' (the document that will form the key clauses within a full lease), which is a good starting point for organisations that are intending to become tenants in a new building. A copy of these 'heads of terms' is available as a downloadable pdf.

It may also be appropriate for a tenant to lease equipment within a new building, or for a developer to supply funds for some other purpose (such as paying off some negative equity on a previously owned property under arrangements detailed in the 'Directions 2004'). If this is the case a different lease will be required. A copy of this type of lease is available as a downloadable pdf.

Larger buildings are likely to have a number of tenants. For example space within a new primary care centre may be allocated to one or more GP practices, PCT-employed community staff, acute trust staff and social services.

Separate leases are likely to be needed for each of these tenants. However, it may be easier for one tenant (normally a larger GP practice or PCT) to take a head lease, and for this lead organisation to then issue sub-leases or licences to other tenants who use smaller amounts of space.

Specialist advice on this matter should be taken in order to reach a decision on the most appropriate arrangement. Where there is more than one tenant, careful consideration needs to be given to future changes in space usage to ensure that the lease arrangement does not limit flexibility and opportunities for further integration of services.

Utility supplies and heating equipment should be shared by all leaseholders with a separate service agreement between the tenants, with each agreeing to pay their share of the costs based on the proportion of the total space within the building that they use.