Many businesses choose an office rental in London as their headquarters. The city is perfectly placed within the UK to accept visitors, it has a long-established and illustrious reputation and it boasts two world-leading financial centres in the shape of the City of London and Canary Wharf. For many small to medium-sized businesses, one good-quality office rental in London is more than suitable for their purposes.
There are certain situations when an office rental in London will be necessary only for short periods of time, or will be kept 'in waiting' for a business to move into. Perhaps a business has been based for many years at a location outside of London and sees this fact as being an essential element of its brand, but would still like to pay for an office in London in order to have a 'foot in the door' of the capital. In other situations, a business may be paying for an office rental that is too large for their needs. Large, spacious offices are undoubtedly a good thing - but no company wants to pay for things it doesn't need.
In situations such as these, business owners may want to consider subletting their commercial property. In simple terms, subletting means that you still pay rent to your landlord, but receive rent from a third party in return for occupation of some or all of the property.
In most cases, the right to sublet will be granted in a lease - but a business owner will still have to ask his or her landlord for permission. Before the sublet is agreed upon, those responsible should communicate with their solicitors and ensure that all relevant paperwork is in order.
If you're thinking of subletting an office in London, then you should consider whether you want to sublet some of your commercial property floor space or all of it. If you are in a situation where your office rental in London is a 'satellite' that is rarely - or never - used, then you may want to consider subletting all of this property until the time comes when the office needs to be used more regularly. This way, you can keep your hands on a precious piece of commercial property in the capital without losing valuable overheads on an underused piece of office space.
The other option - to sublet only a portion of your office space - is generally only open to those who operate from a particularly large property. Sharing part of your space with another company is a great way to forge valuable business links, but you should check with your landlord to ensure that this is possible. In most leases, it won't be. When you first approach commercial estate agents in London, they should help you to negotiate your rights to sublet when you sign up for an office rental in London.
The most important thing to remember when subletting an office in London, however, is to ensure that you completely understand the actions that you are entitled to take when subletting to a third party. Failure to abide by the rules, whether deliberately or accidently, could result in your landlord commencing forfeiture proceedings. This could mean that you lose your office rental in London - and if your London office space is an essential cog in your business machine, this could have dire consequences for your company.
Subletting an office rental in London can have many advantages for businesses. However, it is important that the company that occupies the commercial property in London to be sublet carefully abides by the rules laid out in its lease.