This is a brief guide to commercial leasing practice in England and Wales.  Scotland operates a separate legal system, although there are many similarities and not all of the laws affecting land and buildings cover the entire UK. It is not comprehensive and you should always obtain professional advice before entering into any contract to rent land or buildings.

Rent reviews became common in commercial leases during the 1960s.  Inflation was becoming a permanent feature of the economy and rent reviews were seen as the mechanism whereby landlords could draft relatively long leases without suffering the penalties of having a rent far below the true value of the building in the later years.  Initially rent reviews were seen only in very long leases where they were often at intervals of 21 years.  However, they quickly became established at 7 and more recently at 5-year intervals.

Rent reviews in commercial leases are a completely contractual process and they are not regulated by any Act of Parliament.  So the landlord and tenant are completely free to agree to whatever terms they wish; something which is not true of every clause in a lease. However, they still tend to follow a similar pattern, dictated by a combination of custom, case law and standardised legal drafting. They almost never allow the rent to decrease although this has started to change recently.