Your Barbershop Lease Questions – Answered

In short, you don’t have to accept the terms that are offered – you can negotiate. Without getting a valuation, you are potentially pushing the rental valuation up in your area. Surveyors are the only people qualified to value the rental valuation of property.

Should I get a short- or long-term lease?

If you know that this barbershop isn’t your long-term goal, you may wish to agree to a short-term lease and move the shop’s location. Or, you might want to agree to a long-term lease, with break options, to give you stability. Or, you could agree to a long-term lease with a plan to sell in the future – then you can build up accounts to the value of the shop.

Do I need a break clause?

While they do give you a fixed date of when you can break the lease, there are other alternatives. Often, when a business owner finds themselves needing to action the break clause, it’s rarely at a time that it can be actioned. Being able to assign the lease would be far more beneficial to most business owners.

I want to rent out a chair in my barbershop. Does the lease need to factor this in?

Most leases would automatically prohibit you from renting out chairs, so check! You would need to agree to the ability to sublet, in order for you to issue a lease (or licence) to people you are renting space to. Many barbershops treat renters as self-employed staff, but giving away space in your shop, to another business, is a property transaction and needs to be documented within a lease, not a self-employed contract.

How often can a landlord make rent increase?

It’s standard practice for longer leases to be five-yearly, and shorter three-yearly. I’m not a fan of Retail Price Index (RPI) increases, because this artificially increases market rent during times of market downturn. Open market rent reviews reflect what the market is doing, as long as tenants don’t just agree to whatever increase they are given, and seek professional advice when they receive a rent review notice.