Commercial Lease Agreement Template
A commercial lease is a different document class from a residential one — it adds triple-net charges on top of base rent, restricts the space to a specific permitted use, and is not covered by residential tenant-protection law. Download the ready-to-fill template below, or read the field-by-field checklist first.
Download the Commercial Lease Agreement
A complete, ready-to-fill PDF — 13 clauses, blanks for every detail, and a signature block for both parties. Free, no email, no account. Read it and adapt it before you use it; the cover page explains what it can and cannot do for you.
Need the other party to sign it too? Send it for signature with a full audit trail and a tamper-evident seal on the finished file — they never need an account. See pricing.
This is a template, not legal advice
This document is a general-purpose template provided for information only. It is not legal advice, it does not create a lawyer–client relationship, and nobody has reviewed it against your situation.
Laws differ by country, state and province, and they change. A clause that is standard in one place can be unenforceable — or illegal — in another. Terms that are ordinary between two businesses can be void in a consumer or employment context.
Read every clause before you use it, fill in every blank, and delete anything that does not apply. For anything high-value, unusual, or that you could not afford to lose a dispute over, have a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction review it before it is signed.
This kind of document is regulated differently almost everywhere. Many places require specific notices, disclosures or statutory wording, and some make clauses like these unenforceable outright. Treat this template as a starting point to take to a local lawyer, not as a document to sign as-is.
What to include in a commercial lease agreement
These are the fields and clauses a commercial lease needs. Leaving one out doesn’t necessarily void the lease, but each gap is a spot where the landlord and tenant can end up disagreeing about what they actually agreed to — or where a tenant discovers a protection they assumed applied simply doesn’t.
Landlord & tenant names
Full legal names — the tenant is very often a company or other entity, not a person, so its registered name and entity type matter.
Premises description & permitted use
The address, square footage, and the specific business purpose the space may be used for — not "general commercial use."
Term & renewal options
A start and end date, plus how many renewal options exist, the notice required to exercise one, and how renewal rent is set.
Base rent & any escalation
The monthly rent figure and whether it increases on a fixed schedule over the term.
Triple-net (NNN) charges
The tenant's pro-rata share of property taxes, building insurance and common-area maintenance, on top of base rent — with the calculation and reconciliation process spelled out.
Security deposit terms
The amount and return conditions — set by negotiation, not by a statutory cap, because commercial deposits are not regulated the way residential ones are.
Maintenance & repair split
Which repairs are the landlord's (structure, shared building systems) and which are the tenant's (the interior and anything serving only the premises).
Assignment & subletting rights
Whether the tenant can assign the lease or sublet the space, the consent process, and whether the original tenant stays liable after an assignment.
Insurance requirements
Minimum general liability cover the tenant must carry, naming the landlord as an additional insured.
Jurisdiction & local legal review
Permitted-use restrictions, assignment rights and what counts as a "commercial" tenancy exempt from residential protections all vary by state and country — this template is not a substitute for local review.
Signatures & date
Both parties sign and date it. Where the tenant is an entity, the signer must be authorized to bind it — it isn't binding until both have signed.
Triple-net charges and permitted use: why this isn’t a residential lease with a different name
A residential lease and a commercial lease share the word “lease,” but they’re built for different problems. A residential lease has to protect a tenant who lives in the unit — statutory deposit caps, habitability warranties, minimum notice before entry or eviction. A commercial lease assumes both sides are negotiating a business arrangement, and those protections mostly don’t apply. Using a residential template for business space — or the reverse — produces a document with the wrong assumptions baked in.
The clearest sign of that difference is triple-net (NNN) charges. Base rent in a commercial lease is often just the starting number: on top of it, the tenant pays a pro-rata share of the landlord’s property taxes, building insurance and common-area maintenance costs. Without a defined calculation — the tenant’s percentage of the building’s leasable area, how estimates are billed monthly, and how the annual reconciliation against actual costs works — “NNN charges apply” is a promise with no number attached, and the annual true-up bill becomes something the tenant has no way to check.
The second is the permitted-use restriction. A residential lease doesn’t need to say what a tenant does inside their own home. A commercial lease has to state the specific business purpose the space may be used for, because that use affects the landlord’s zoning compliance, insurance premium, and any exclusive-use rights already promised to another tenant in the building — which is also why changing that use later needs the landlord’s written consent, not just a notice.
The template above builds in both: a dedicated NNN clause with the calculation, billing and audit-right mechanics spelled out, a permitted-use clause naming the specific business purpose, and a clause stating plainly that residential tenant-protection statutes generally do not apply here — so neither side is relying on a protection the document doesn’t actually carry.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating base rent as the whole cost. Triple-net charges — the tenant's share of property taxes, building insurance and common-area maintenance — are billed separately and can add 20–40% on top of base rent. A lease that doesn't define how that share is calculated leaves the real monthly cost undetermined.
- Writing "general commercial use" instead of a specific permitted use. A vague use clause leaves the landlord unable to enforce compatibility with other tenants, and leaves the tenant unsure whether a future pivot in the business is even allowed at this address.
- Assuming residential tenant protections apply. Security-deposit caps, implied habitability warranties and minimum eviction-notice periods that protect residential tenants generally do not apply to a commercial lease — assuming otherwise is the single most consequential mistake either side can make with this document.
- No cap or audit right on NNN reconciliation. Without a stated method for calculating the tenant's pro-rata share and a right to inspect the landlord's records, an annual "true-up" bill becomes a number the tenant has no way to check.
- Silence on assignment liability. Getting the landlord's consent to assign the lease does not automatically release the original tenant from it — that release has to be stated in writing, or the original tenant stays on the hook if the assignee stops paying.
Get your lease signed
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Not legal advice — commercial lease terms vary materially by state and jurisdiction; have a local attorney review your lease before signing.