For most professionals, retail leasing is an insignificant part of their practice.  Many think leases are “standard” and landlords are inflexible with a “take it or leave it” attitude.  In practice, tenancy arrangements are negotiable - providing you know what to ask! 

Many retailers simply “gut feel it”.  They think retailing is tough enough without wading through the complex maze of verbiage that constitutes a modern lease.  But your lease is a long-term pledge  - your pledge, not your advisors - and obtaining proper advice is essential prior to signing up!

In our experience, few lawyers truly understand trade area dynamics, gross profit margin analysis or occupancy cost ratios for a particular business type.  They cannot judge if you should “walk away” if the deal isn’t a good one, or negotiate dispassionately for better terms which is essential when you are setting up shop.  As retail tenancy experts, our Retail Lease Coach™ service advises you and other professionals.  If you know little about property capitalisation rates, stock market and unit trust expectations or the massaging of asset values and how they directly relate to a retailer’s bottom line, how can advisors working in isolation help you? 

Has your professional adviser really considered your position if your new site is a “dog” – unprofitable at any rent?  Have they thought about the impact of external factors like diminished pedestrian flow, changing customer types, average spend variations, stock turns requirements or say, if a food court you’ll rely on has enough seating? - all matters learned from experience at the retail “coal face”. 

If your advisors don’t know the true effect of restrictive usage clauses, changes in tenancy mix or the value of retail benchmarking, how can they properly help when you really need it?

"A lease is not intended to be either a mental exercise or an essay in literature: it is a practical document dealing with a practical situation."

^{Levermore v Jobey [1956] 1 WLR 697 at 708 per Danckwerts LJ}