Tenant’s break options—what do you have to pay? By Mark Sefton & Oliver Radley-Gardener
The Feast of the Annunciation, the Nativity of St John the Baptist, the Feast of the Archangel St Michael, and the Nativity of Christ, are all feast days in the mediaeval calendar of saints. But history lingers on, and they are also, under most modern commercial leases, the dates when the tenant will have agreed to pay the rent, quarterly in advance. They are, of course, the usual quarter days of 25 March, 24 June, 29 September and 25 December.
It is not uncommon for commercial leases to include a tenant’s break option, and, where they do, the date on which the tenant can break the lease is often less religiously tied to the major festivals of the Christian cycle. Sometimes, in other words, the break date falls somewhere between two rent days.
Conditions apply
Normally, the break option will be conditional on the tenant having paid all the rent due up to the break date. But what does that mean, if the
