Legal advice on renewing your lease

by Deborah McCallum of thePublican.com's legal team of experts from London solicitor Joelson Wilson​

Many long pub leases were granted 10 to 15 years ago. If the end of your lease term is approaching, you may wonder what you should be doing, indeed whether you need do anything at all.

All pub leases for more than six months are nowadays renewable, unless the landlord and the tenant have expressly excluded "security of tenure".

How do you know whether your lease is "excluded"? The lease will contain a clause saying that, as authorised by an order of the county court, the parties have agreed that certain provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 will not apply to the tenancy. The clause is usually among the back pages. There should also be copies of a court application and an "exclusion order" with your deeds.

If that is the case, you must leave the premises on or before the last day of the term. If the term was for 10 years from April 1 1993, your term ends on March 31 2003.

Your landlord may, in practice, be prepared to extend your lease, but you will need to have made proper arrangements well in advance.

If your lease is not excluded and you have the right to renew (assuming you want to), there are procedures to be followed.

Unless your landlord serves you with a formal written notice in a prescribed form, you can stay on at the premises until he does so.

If it is served, it will be at least a six months' warning that the term is to end and must take effect no earlier than the last day of your term.

The notice will tell you whether the landlord intends to let you renew or, if not, the reasons why he would oppose a renewal.

Those reasons are limited to certain specified grounds, eg he wants the property back for his own use or for redevelopment.

You can challenge such a notice if you believe he cannot legally justify his reasons.

If he offers a new lease, the landlord must propose a new term and new rent and the next steps are to settle these, either by negotiation or by referring to the court for a decision.

At this stage, and preferably earlier, you should get advice from your solicitor and your surveyor. The legal steps to be followed are rigid and you must not miss the deadlines or you will lose your right to renew.

If your term is about to expire and you have heard nothing but want to know where you stand, you can serve your own notice requesting a new tenancy to run from a date six to 12 months ahead.

This can be a good move if rents are static and you freeze your rent for the next three years, for example.

Again, professional advice can be invaluable in these circumstances.