Leases have moved on. It’s the market that needs to catch up, says Keeley Ellaway
In their recent NLJ article, Richard Castle and John Castle lamented the lack of progress in lease development calling for leases to be “brought into the 20th century before too much of the 21st goes by” (NLJ, 30 July 2010, p 1068-69). Clearlet, a new form of lease written in plain English, goes some way to address this challenge.
Clearlet was devised by Nabarro and developed for one of its major landlord clients by the clients’ legal panel of Nabarro, Eversheds and Dundas & Wilson. Clearlet reflects a modern approach to leasing and is indicative of a move away from the historic adversarial position between landlord and tenant to that of a partnership where the parties work collaboratively to achieve a mutually beneficial document.
The idea behind Clearlet
The idea for Clearlet was put forward before current challenging economic times. In these conditions, the adoption of a Clearlet approach has become a necessity rather than a nicety, with many firms acknowledging that they cannot simply continue to issue their latest standard form of lease, charge a set
