Commercial tenancy charges

[MartinQ]

I rent a small office within a larger building and the letting agent has charged me a proportion of the repairs to a shop front about two doors away. This shop shares no communal area with my office so I'm a little aggrieved at having to pay it. The tenancy agreement mentions paying a proportion for the repairs and cleaning of the communal areas but it doesn't seem right contributing towards a repair that I didn't even know about or that we could even be liable for in the first place.

I've also been invoiced for a proportion of the landlord's building insurance. This also seems questionable to me as this is surely one of his business expenses and should be accounted for in the rent. Is this standard practice or should I question it with the agent?

[Foliage]

Pop them in an envelope, mail them back to the agent, with a little note saying 'sent in error'. See where you go from there.

[PurpleMoonlight]

You will need to post the wording of the specific covenants in the lease to get a decent answer. The repair could refer to the whole building not just the communal areas.

It is usual to pay landlords insurance on top but again there should be something in the lease stipulating your liability.

[anonymous-user]

MartinQ said:

The tenancy agreement mentions paying a proportion for the repairs and cleaning of the communal areas

That seems to answer your question.

The lease will also cover the insurance situation.

[JQ]

You pay whatever is stated in the lease. In general terms you pay a proportion of the total cost of maintaining the building, whether your demise is connected to those elements being maintained or not. Some service charges will have different schedules, so that the guy on the ground floor does not pay to service the lift, but not all do. I would expect shop fronts to be part of a separate schedule, but if you didn't agree that when negotiating your lease then you might be stuffed.

As for insurance, yes it's standard practice that the Landlord recovers the cost of insurance. Some leases will include the insurance cost but the vast majority won't. Again it's whatever is in your lease.

[surveyor]

Devils in the detail. Happy to have a look at the lease if it helps.

Buildings insurance is often (normally) recharged.

[Rob_H]

As others have said the maintenance will be covered under the service charge schedule under the lease. Likewise if your shop front needs repair the others will also cop for a proportion so its swings and roundabouts. Again a similar situation for roof repairs and the like. Assuming your on an IRI lease based on what you've said so again whole building insurance would be proportioned accordingly usually.

Rob