Documents / Real Estate
Commercial Lease Agreement
Lease office, retail, or industrial space to a business — rent structure, escalations, maintenance, insurance, and remedies.
Create a review draft
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General text. One nationwide text with your state’s governing law. It does not adapt to your state’s mandatory rules, so check them before relying on it.
Version 2026-09-09.8. No qualified legal review is recorded. Read the complete document and obtain advice for your circumstances.
Review and execution steps
- Verify permitted use, zoning, accessibility, licensing and the exact premises description.
- Have operating expenses, insurance, repair allocation, guarantees, tax and default provisions reviewed; a lease does not transfer title.
- Complete all schedules and confirm any recording or execution requirements before signing outside Quill.
- Attach the initialed plan of the leased area and shared facilities, and confirm any insurance endorsements (additional insured, waiver of subrogation) with the insurer before promising them.
Guidance updated September 8, 2026. Source coverage is limited to the topics described; historical sources are identified. State, local and transaction-specific requirements still apply.
Time
~15 min
Questions
≤ 31
Steps
8
Export
PDF · Word
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What we will cover
- 01
Location
Choose the actual location so the preparation guidance and applicable safeguards follow your document.
- 02
Landlord & Tenant
- 03
The Premises
- 04
Lease Term
- 05
Rent & Expenses
- 06
Maintenance, Insurance & Signage
- 07
Legal Details
- 08
Premises delivery and expense schedule
- 09
Review and generate
Edit and export, then follow this document's review, delivery or execution steps.
About this document
A commercial lease covers office, retail, or industrial space rented to a business. It runs longer than a residential lease, carries far more money, and is negotiated term by term rather than filled in from a standard form. Beyond base rent it settles who pays property taxes, building insurance, and common-area maintenance, who repairs the HVAC, what the space may be used for, and what signage the tenant can hang.
Commercial tenants get almost none of the consumer protections that cover residential renters — courts assume both sides are sophisticated and enforce the lease as written. That makes the expense structure the term to read twice: under a triple-net lease, pass-through charges can add a meaningful amount on top of base rent, and they rise over time. The other frequent surprise is the personal guarantee, which puts the owner's own assets behind the company's rent.
Common questions
What is the difference between a gross lease and a triple net (NNN) lease?+
In a gross lease the landlord pays property taxes, building insurance, and common-area maintenance out of the rent you pay. Under triple net you pay base rent plus your proportionate share of all three, billed monthly and reconciled annually, so your real occupancy cost is higher than the quoted rate. Modified gross sits between them: the landlord absorbs a base year of those costs and you pay increases above it.
Do I have to personally guarantee a commercial lease?+
Landlords commonly ask for one when the tenant is a new or thinly capitalized company, and it makes you personally liable for the rent even if the business closes. It is negotiable — you can often cap it at a set number of months' rent, or have it burn off after a period of on-time payments. Do not sign one assuming the LLC alone is on the hook.
Can I get out of a commercial lease early?+
Not unilaterally. Your options are the ones written into the lease: an early-termination clause with a fee, a right to sublet or assign, or negotiating a buyout with the landlord. Most commercial leases let the landlord refuse consent to a sublease, so ask for language requiring that consent not be unreasonably withheld before you sign.
General information, not legal advice — laws vary by state and change over time.
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