I am going to be leasing disused commercial kitchens on a capped?
Both Susan and Kevin have good suggestions Definitely record the deal in writing, and make sure the written agreement is enforceable against the other party. To maximise the chances of this, I would emphasise that you need some advice from a person who knows how the law works in the place where the premises are located. To keep legal costs down, you and the other party should agree and document as much of the deal as possible, before getting the lawyers involved. Kenny is right about getting the owner's lawyer to prepare the first draft (eg, the Contra proferentem rule of contract interpretation might potentially apply) but I am not so worried about whose lawyer prepares the first draft, because the negotiation process rarely leaves scope for this to matter, in anything other than a mostly theoretical way, in most of the contract disputes that I've seen. You will want the owner to pay you for capital investments in the kitchen/fitout, if you stop operating from those premises. That could also help discourage the owner from terminating your lease of the premises. To prove the owner agreed to this, you need it in writing. This kind of thing is usually part of the lease of commercial premises. You should get help from a person who regularly does work on commercial leases in the location of the premises. Agents can give you some idea, but your own lawyer is what you need. If you were doing this in Sydney, I'd be asking about the branding of the operation. I've seen a similar situation in the past, where the premises owner leased underused premises to an operator, who built up a good customer base associated with a brand for the operation, but the owner eventually got rid of the person operating the facilities and a critical factor which allowed this was the fact that the premises owner had gotten the operator to agree that the premises owner would register the brand as a trade mark, and license the tm to the operator. The operator wanted to save money so they avoided paying for tm registration, but the tm licence they got only worked for the particular premises - so when the owner locked out the operator due to a disagreement, the licence couldn't be used elsewhere. The operator claimed was engineered by the owner, so they could cut out the operator from a profitable business, but the operator didn't want to take on a court case. Esp if the brand you will be using is basically a new brand, I'd suggest you get the owner to agree that you will own the brand. And choose a brand you can register as a trade mark. Again, for this it's best to use the services of someone who does this kind of work all the time. The idea is that, if you have a registered tm and in the future have to change premises, then you can take your brand with you, and stop the owner operating under your brand. Having a registered tm also allows for expansion, either organically, by franchise model or otherwise. Good luck