You are about to conclude or renew a commercial lease and want to know if the lessor is entitled to make you bear certain charges.
Your question is essential, as the amount of charges can represent 50% of the rent, especially in shopping centres!
So what is your margin for negotiation? Can you object to the lessor’s intention to re-invoice you for most of the charges?
You can require your lessor to respect the distribution of burdens organized by law and case law.
Before its last reform (PINEL law of 18 June 2014 and implementing decree of 3 November 2014), the status of commercial leases did not regulate the distribution of charges between the lessor and the lessee.
This distribution was the result of contractual freedom.
Thus, the tendency of the landlords who drafted the deed was to make the tenants bear all the expenses.
Case law has corrected this trend by requiring that lessors only re-invoice tenants for the charges expressly and specifically mentioned in the lease.
Since the reform, landlords can no longer charge tenants for all expenses, including major repairs.
The status of commercial leases now requires the parties to draw up an accurate and limiting inventory of the categories of charges recoverable by the lessor from the lessee.
If you are about to conclude a commercial lease, our firm will take care to check for possible excesses by landlords, especially those who, despite the reform, try to impose lists transferring all charges to tenants.
In the event of a renewal, our firm will ensure that the lessor does not take the opportunity to impose new charges under the pretext of the need to bring the lease into compliance with the Pinel law.
Our firm will identify the charges that may have become, given the renewal of the “post-Pinel” lease, deemed unwritten.
He will check that the renewal takes place under the terms and conditions of the expired lease if it is in your interest.
