Commercial lease costs

[Skyway]

Hi have a commercial property (small ex car main dealer site) which I am splitting up into 3 or 4 sections in order make renting it out easier. This is already working as I have 2 new tenants wanting to rent parts of the property.

Just over a year ago I paid my solicitor £2500 to draw up a new lease from scratch for the previous tenant but for many reasons it wasn't used, but still completed. Now I have new tenants lined up we will be using the same lease with some minor changes to suit each tenant (basics such as area rented, rent amount, deposit amount, tenant details etc). I have just received my client care letter with estimate of costs and these include £2000 for revised lease and £650 for the deposit deed. I have been told these fees would be on a sliding scale once the first one has been issued.

I don't have any experience in what is involved in issuing a revised version of an existing lease so do these costs seem fair?

A quick look online and it seems I could download a template of the rent deposit deed for £40, so is £650 really justified (especially as they charged me £450 for the same thing in January)?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

[Steve H]

I look after a property that recently re-let, the new lease was £850 and the deposit deed £395, both plus vat. That included getting it signed off with the other side’s solicitors etc.


Medium sized general solicitors but dealt with by a commercial property specialist. Sounds like your guys are a tad pricey.