Covid-19, Brexit and the Law of Commercial Leases: The Essential Guide

This book is part of Law Brief's new series of essential guides for legal practitioners covering what you need to know about how various aspects of UK law have been affected by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Business famously dislikes uncertainty, but it is hard to imagine how it could have much more just now. The pace of technological change, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the looming prospect of the final Brexit deal (or no-deal) make reliable predictions near-impossible. The commercial property world is affected like everything else.

Technology both enables and demands flexibility from the office occupier, while the retail sector both embraces the opportunities of online trading and struggles to cope with its consequences. Brexit and Covid-19 each in their own ways raise doubts about provision of services to multi-let buildings, sustainability of tenants’ businesses, and the risk of tenant default.

This book considers in particular the impact that Covid-19 has had on the commercial leasing market, but sets that in the context of all of those other uncertainties. As well as considering how the current crisis is addressed in rent concession agreements, it looks forward to how commercial landlord and tenant law, and lease drafting, might change permanently.