What is a lease Disclosure Statement?
Aged Care: 16 March 2021
A lease Disclosure Statement (DS) provides a summary of the major commercial terms of a retail lease.
The DS must be provided by the Landlord (or its leasing agent) to the Tenant of the retail premises at least 14 days before a lease is entered into/the lease is signed.
As well as providing the DS within the 14 days, the Landlord must also provide to the Tenant a copy of the proposed lease that includes details of the:
- Tenant;
- rent payable; and
- term of the lease.
If the Landlord does not give to the Tenant the DS and lease at least 14 days before the lease is entered into, the lease will start/commence 14 days after these documents are provided.
This means that the Landlord may miss out on lease payments depending on how the lease is drafted. For example, a lease could say that the Tenant starts paying rent on the commencement date.
The commencement date may be a later date because the Landlord has not provided a DS or proposed lease to the Tenant.
Sarah Ward is an Accredited Specialists in Commercial Tenancy in Victoria.