Is this typical of a lease?

[StottyGTR]

I've agreed a price on a unit to rent but when the lease was sent across I noticed there is a 5% increase each year on rental price. I queried this and was told this is taking into account inflation, alternatively I have to pay ~£500pa for a survey to be completed to revalue the unit and have to pay the increase anyway. Is this typical? Lease is for 5 years.

[StottyGTR]

Thanks for the responses chaps, I need the premises in the short term so I'll sign the lease and utilise the 18month break clause so I don't have to pay the inflated rates and can find something else. I raised the point that the rent price was already agreed and the increases were atypical and were completely ignored...

Edited by StottyGTR on Wednesday 29th March 14:35

[StottyGTR]

This has been playing on my mind. I slept on it and I agree with the sentiment. I don't have enough legal knowledge to understand the various clauses in the lease and are aware I could easily be stung. I think I'll look for a more trustworthy landlord, god knows what I'm going to do with the 3 cars I need to store in the meantime though!

[StottyGTR]

Unit is around 750sqft for £750/month, or over £900/month by year 5

Annoyingly I paid a £750 deposit prior to seeing the lease, an expensive lesson has been learnt. Prior to paying the deposit I contacted the women organising the lease and queried if there were any other overheads or costs to be aware of. She never mentioned anything about increased rental costs or rental review fees, the deposit was paid on this basis. Then the lease came through with these 5% yearly increases. I'm sure this can't be legal and it's certainly not ethical, but as it was a phone call I'm not sure I can do anything about it.

[StottyGTR]

skwdenyer said:

On what basis did you pay this deposit? Was it actually a deposit? For that matter, was the lease actually a lease (as opposed to a licence)?

I can't think of many circumstances in which you could pay a deposit before sight of the proposed lease, and then not be able to get your deposit back. £750 is small claims / MCOL territory, so I or others here would I'm sure be happy to look over the paperwork and see if you have a case for getting it back.

(IANAL but I deal with commercial property quite a lot on my own account and for others)

Her words were "deposit to secure the unit while I process your application" although it does say if I decided not to go ahead then the deposit would not be refunded. I was thinking about going down the small claims court route, if for anything just to learn how the process works. I'm a bit naive and paid the deposit as I presume people are open & honest, luckily it is rare I come across people like this.

Are links permitted to be posted on here? If so, here's the 900+/month beauty to feast your eyes on

https://www.gumtree.com/p/commercial-property-to-r...

My tape measure said it was 4.6m wide too.