Commercial Property

Commercial Property Solicitor Cost UK 2026

Leasehold acquisition typically £2,500 to £15,000. Freehold purchase £3,500 to £20,000. Lease assignment £1,200 to £4,500. SDLT runs 0 to 5 percent on commercial property. Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 renewal is technical, time-bound, and expensive if contested.

Why commercial property work is priced separately from residential conveyancing

Residential conveyancing operates on a fairly standardised set of documents and processes: a standard form contract, Property Information Form, Fittings and Contents Form, and a relatively narrow set of searches. Commercial property is bespoke. The lease is the central document and runs to 50 or 100 pages of negotiated covenants on use, alteration, alienation, repair, rent review, break clauses, service charge, and recovery rights. Each clause has implications for valuation, financeability, and the tenant's operational flexibility. Drafting and negotiating these clauses takes specialist expertise and substantially more time than a residential conveyance of the same monetary value.

Pricing reflects this. A £500,000 residential conveyance might run to £1,500 in solicitor fees; a £500,000 commercial leasehold acquisition runs to £4,000 to £8,000 in solicitor fees and a £500,000 freehold commercial purchase £4,500 to £10,000. The cost driver is not the consideration but the complexity. A small unit with a short, standard lease can be cheaper than a high-value residential. A trophy lease for 25 years on a flagship retail unit with bespoke landlord covenants and complex service charge will be many multiples more expensive.

Leasehold acquisition (the tenant side)

Taking a new commercial lease is the most common commercial property transaction. The tenant's solicitor reviews the draft lease, raises enquiries with the landlord's solicitor, negotiates amendments, and completes the lease. Standard amendments tenants seek include capping repair obligations to a schedule of condition, capping service charge contributions, securing a personal break clause, restricting landlord's recovery on dilapidations, and adding alienation flexibility (assignment, underletting, group sharing).

Typical tenant-side solicitor fees in 2026 for a leasehold acquisition: a 5-year lease on a small unit (under 1,000 sq ft, rent under £50,000) typically £2,500 to £4,500 plus VAT; a 10-year lease on a mid-sized unit (1,000 to 5,000 sq ft, rent £50,000 to £250,000) typically £4,500 to £8,500 plus VAT; a 15- to 25-year lease on a flagship unit or office floor typically £8,500 to £15,000 plus VAT, with significant uplift for institutional landlord standard leases (Land Securities, British Land, Hammerson) where the negotiation is more contested.

Disbursements include searches (local authority £200 to £400, environmental £80 to £150, drainage £40 to £80, chancel £25), Land Registry leasehold registration fees (sliding scale by consideration), and SDLT (separate calculation on rent and premium). For institutional landlord leases the landlord typically charges a contribution to its solicitor's fees of £1,500 to £3,500.

Freehold commercial purchase

Buying a commercial freehold (an office, retail unit, industrial unit, or investment portfolio) involves higher diligence than residential. The buyer's solicitor reviews the title, raises pre-contract enquiries, reviews all leases held by sitting tenants, reviews planning history, checks environmental history, and arranges searches. Where the property is tenanted, the buyer is acquiring not just the building but the income stream and the relationship with each tenant: lease reviews are detailed.

Typical buyer-side solicitor fees in 2026 for a freehold commercial purchase: a single small commercial unit (under £500,000) typically £3,500 to £7,500 plus VAT; a mid-sized commercial freehold (£500,000 to £5 million) typically £7,500 to £20,000 plus VAT; a multi-let investment property or portfolio typically £20,000 to £75,000+ plus VAT depending on lease count and complexity. Seller-side fees typically run 60% to 80% of buyer-side fees on the same transaction.

Commercial SDLT applies on freehold purchases at 0% on the portion up to £150,000, 2% on £150,001 to £250,000, and 5% on the portion above £250,000. SDLT on a £750,000 commercial freehold is therefore £2,000 (0% to £150k) plus £25,000 (5% on £500k) totalling £27,000. SDLT is filed via the SDLT1 form and paid within 14 days of completion. The 3% additional rate for second homes does not apply to commercial property.

Lease assignment and the AGA

A lease assignment transfers an existing lease from the outgoing tenant to a new tenant (the assignee). The landlord's consent is required under the alienation covenants in the lease. The tripartite document is a licence to assign. The assignor's solicitor reviews and signs the licence; the assignee's solicitor takes over the lease; the landlord's solicitor drafts and approves the licence.

Under the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995, the assignor is automatically released from future lease covenants on a true assignment unless an Authorised Guarantee Agreement (AGA) is required. An AGA is a guarantee given by the assignor to the landlord that the assignee will perform the lease covenants. The lease typically requires an AGA on assignment, and the landlord typically asks for one in practice. The AGA falls away on the next assignment.

Typical solicitor fees for a lease assignment: assignor side £1,200 to £4,500 plus VAT depending on lease complexity; assignee side similar; landlord side £750 to £2,500 plus VAT, payable by the assignor or assignee under the lease. The whole transaction typically completes in 4 to 12 weeks depending on landlord's solicitor turnaround and the complexity of the licence.

Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 renewal

Business tenancies (leases of premises occupied for business purposes) attract statutory renewal rights under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. The tenant has the right to renew the lease at the end of the contractual term unless the landlord opposes on one of the statutory grounds in section 30 (the landlord's grounds: tenant breach, alternative accommodation, uneconomic sub-division, landlord redevelopment, landlord own occupation, demolition or substantial reconstruction).

The procedure starts with a Section 25 notice (landlord) or Section 26 request (tenant) served at least 6 and not more than 12 months before the termination date. The notice triggers a window for the parties to negotiate terms. Where terms cannot be agreed, either party can issue at the County Court for a determination of the new lease terms, rent, and length. Court costs for a contested 1954 Act renewal are significant: solicitor fees typically £10,000 to £40,000+ per party, surveyor expert fees £5,000 to £20,000+ per party, counsel fees £1,500 to £5,000 per day of hearing.

The 1954 Act can be excluded for new leases by following the formal procedure in section 38A and Schedule 6: the landlord serves a notice on the tenant, the tenant gives a declaration (or statutory declaration if the notice was served less than 14 days before the lease), and the lease records the exclusion. Properly excluded leases give no statutory renewal right. Many institutional landlords exclude the 1954 Act on new leases as standard.

Rent review and dispute resolution

A rent review is the scheduled adjustment of rent during a lease term, typically every 5 years on an upward-only basis (the rent cannot decrease below the passing rent). The mechanism is set out in the rent review clause and the standard valuation basis is open market rent for the demised premises as if vacant and available to let on a hypothetical lease equivalent to the actual lease. The valuation date is set in the lease; the lease may specify arbitration or expert determination as the dispute resolution mechanism.

Solicitor representation in a rent review typically costs £800 to £3,500 plus VAT if the rent is agreed by negotiation between surveyors with solicitor oversight, and £4,000 to £15,000+ plus VAT if the matter proceeds to formal arbitration or expert determination. Surveyor fees are typically £1,500 to £6,000 for a small commercial unit and £6,000 to £25,000+ for a substantial unit. Arbitration is more flexible but typically more expensive; expert determination is faster and cheaper but the determination is binding with limited appeal grounds.

Memorandum of rent review is exchanged at the end of the process and recorded against the lease. The reviewed rent applies from the review date, with arrears or refunds calculated for the intervening period.

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