Understanding the concept of a sublease is a relatively simple thing: when you have a lease of your own and you rent out part of that property to someone else, you’re “sub-leasing.” But when you introduced the “commercial sublease” aspect into the mix, suddenly things don’t seem so black-and-white. Why? Because commercial property is generally harder to manage than residential property, meaning that if you’re going to be subleasing a part of your office to someone else, then you’re essentially taking on a difficult management position.

But that’s exactly what articles like these are for - to shed some light on processes like commercial subleasing. Let’s explore some of the common pitfalls and errors some commercial subleasers make, as well as the areas where you can really make things easy on yourself.

One area to make sure that you handle well is having all of the proper commercial subleasing forms and agreements signed in advance of when the commercial subleaser is to move in to their space. These are not only necessary, but should be considered an absolute must before any type of commercial arrangement is to proceed. For example, if you have a commercial lease and are subleasing it to a friend, you don’t want to let them move into an office before you can get them to sign all of the necessary contracts and agreements - you’re not even sure if your property manager has approved of this sublease yet! You have to be on top of things both legally and officially, and you’ll want to handle paperwork before action. It’s the way of the world these days.

Having these agreements and forms in hand is so important because it will commit the subleaser to a certain amount of responsibilities - if these responsibilities are not met, then you have the legal right to pursue, for example, missed rent through the legal process. Without these in place, someone can essentially do whatever they want. If you have no way of proving any agreements took place, then you’re left out in the woods.

The way to go about handling a commercial subleasing agreement, then, is to double-check them with your property manager first, to draw up the necessary paper work and forms for these subleasing agreements, and then to allow someone to move into the new office space. It’s important that you have all of the details hashed out before the agreement is signed, because you don’t want to tack on any new requirements after the fact. Make sure that rent to be paid and rent due dates are all part of the commercial subleasing agreements and that they’re adequately signed by both parties.

Once you have all of the logistical issues in place, there should be no problems upon the duration of the sublease. It’s important that you make sure to be on top of collecting rent as well as all other duties that you are bound to as per the subleasing agreement. If all goes well, you can generally sit back and enjoy the additional revenue every month!