Most businesses do not plan their lease end. They notice it.
A calendar reminder arrives, someone flags it in a board meeting, and suddenly a decision that deserves six to twelve months of careful thinking gets compressed into a few weeks of reactive calls with agents and solicitors. The result is rarely the right outcome. It is usually just the fastest available one.
If your commercial office lease is expiring in the next one to two years, or if you have a break clause approaching, you are at one of the most significant decision points a leadership team faces. The choice you make will shape your operating costs, your ability to attract and retain people, and the day-to-day experience of your entire workforce for the next five to ten years.
The good news: you have more options than you think. Most leadership teams enter this process believing the choice is simply renew or move. In reality, there are five distinct paths available, each with different financial, operational and strategic implications.
This guide walks through each of them, explains the financial stakes, and sets out the questions you need to answer before committing to any direction.
Your Five Options at Lease End
When a commercial lease expires, or when a break clause becomes exercisable, you are not simply choosing between staying and going. The full set of options is wider than most leadership teams realise.
| Option | What it involves | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Renew as-is | Sign a new lease on the same space, broadly unchanged | Businesses where the space still works and costs are acceptable |
| Renew and refurbish | Commit to a new lease term and invest in transforming the existing space | Businesses where the location and building work, but the fit-out no longer reflects how the team works |
| Relocate | Find and fit out a new space elsewhere | Businesses that have outgrown the location, need more or less space, or want a fresh start |
| Downsize and refurbish | Negotiate to surrender part of your current space and refurbish the remainder | Businesses operating with significant surplus space post-hybrid working |
| Hold over and decide | Allow the lease to expire and continue on a periodic tenancy while you assess | Only appropriate as a short-term bridge; carries financial and legal risk if prolonged |
Each path has a different cost profile, a different timeline, and a different impact on your people. The right answer depends on factors specific to your business, your building and your lease terms.
The most common mistake is treating renewal as the default. Renewal feels like the path of least resistance, but it locks you into another five to ten years on terms you may not have scrutinised properly. The lease-end moment is the single best opportunity you will have to renegotiate your position, and most businesses let it pass without using it.
For a deeper comparison of the refurbishment and relocation routes, our refurbish or relocate guide covers the key considerations in detail.
The Financial Stakes: What Each Path Actually Costs
The instinct to renew without negotiating is understandable. It feels cheaper than the alternatives. But the full cost picture is rarely what it appears.
Renewal without change
Signing a new lease on an unchanged space avoids upfront capital expenditure, but it does not avoid cost. You are committing to rent for another lease term on space that may no longer be sized correctly for your workforce. In a post-hybrid working environment, many businesses are paying for 20 to 40% more desk space than they actually use on any given day.
There is also the question of dilapidations. If your current fit-out is ageing, the landlord may require you to reinstate or repair at lease end regardless of whether you renew. Understanding your dilapidations liability before you make any decision is essential.
Refurbishment at renewal
Refurbishing your existing space at the point of lease renewal is often the most financially efficient path available. Your negotiating leverage is at its highest before you sign, and landlords in most UK markets are actively offering fit-out contributions to retain quality tenants.
A well-negotiated incentive package can fund a significant portion of your refurbishment. Rent-free periods and capital contributions are both available, particularly on leases of five years or more. For a business occupying 5,000 square feet at £30 per square foot per annum, a six-month rent-free period alone is worth £75,000 towards your fit-out budget.
Our guide to negotiating a landlord fit-out contribution explains how to structure that conversation before you agree heads of terms.
Relocation
Relocation carries the highest upfront cost. You will typically be paying two concurrent leases during the transition, and the full cost of a new fit-out falls on you unless you negotiate landlord incentives on the new space. Legal fees, agent fees, removal costs and the productivity impact of a move all add up.
That said, relocation may be the right answer if your current building genuinely cannot support your needs, or if a move unlocks talent attraction in a better location.
For a realistic view of what fit-out work costs across different specification levels, our office fit-out cost guide provides current UK benchmarks.
What Your Lease Is Actually Telling You
Before you can make a sound decision, you need to understand what your current lease allows, requires and prevents. Most leadership teams are surprised by what they find when they read it properly.
Break clauses
If your lease contains a break clause, you have a contractual right to exit before the expiry date, but only if you follow the procedure exactly. Under UK commercial lease law, a break clause is not a flexible exit option. It is a timed legal mechanism with strict conditions.
Notice must typically be served six to twelve months before the break date. Serve it a day late, or serve it on the wrong party, and the right is usually lost entirely. All rent and other sums due must be paid up to date, and in some leases, vacant possession must be given on the break date itself, meaning no fixtures, partitions or stored items can remain.
If you have a break clause, you need to know the exact date and conditions now, not when it is approaching.
Statutory renewal rights
Most UK commercial leases are protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, which gives tenants a statutory right to renew on broadly similar terms. A landlord can only oppose renewal on specific grounds, including a genuine intention to redevelop the property. Recent case law, including the 2025 ruling in Ministry of Sound v The British and Foreign Wharf Company Ltd, has confirmed that courts will grant landlord redevelopment break clauses even where tenants resist, creating uncertainty for businesses that assume renewal is guaranteed.
Dilapidations obligations
Your lease will specify the condition in which you must return the space. This typically means making good any alterations and returning the space to its original state. Get a surveyor’s assessment of your dilapidations position before you commit to any path: the liability can be significant, and it affects the true cost of both staying and leaving.
The Questions to Answer Before You Commit to Anything
The lease-end decision is not primarily a property question. It is a business strategy question that happens to have a property component. The leadership teams that make the best decisions start by getting clear on the following.
About your current space
– Does the space still reflect how your team actually works, or is it configured for a pre-hybrid model?
– Are you occupying more space than you need? Or have you outgrown it?
– What is your dilapidations liability, and what would it cost to address it?
– Does the building support your sustainability and EPC requirements? From 2027, commercial buildings will face tighter minimum energy efficiency standards, and older stock may require significant investment to comply.
About your people and business
– Is your current location still competitive for talent attraction and retention? Three quarters of UK firms already report difficulties recruiting, and office location is a factor.
– Are you expecting significant headcount change in the next three to five years?
– What does your workforce actually want from the office? Have you asked them?
About your options
– Have you instructed a workplace consultant to assess how your current space is being used, before making any assumptions about how much space you need?
– Do you know what incentives your current landlord would offer to retain you?
– Have you explored what comparable space in your area would cost to lease and fit out?
The businesses that make the best decisions at lease end are the ones that treat it as a strategic review, not an administrative task. They start the process 18 to 24 months out, gather the right data, and use their leverage before they have committed to anything.
For a structured checklist of what to assess before signing a new office lease, our guide to questions before signing is a useful starting point.
When to Start: A Realistic Timeline
The single most common reason businesses make poor lease-end decisions is starting too late. Here is a realistic guide to when each stage of the process should begin.
24 months out Identify your lease expiry date and any break clause dates. Locate the original lease documents and pass them to your solicitor for a full review. Start assessing whether your current space is still fit for purpose.
18 months out Commission a workplace utilisation study if you have not already. This tells you how your space is actually being used, not how you assume it is being used, and it is the foundation of any sensible decision about how much space you need. Begin an informal conversation with your current landlord about renewal terms and incentives.
12 months out If you are considering relocation, begin your property search now. Good spaces in competitive markets take time to find, and you need enough runway to negotiate properly. If you are leaning towards refurbishment, engage a fit-out partner to develop a cost plan that you can use in landlord negotiations.
9 months out If your lease has a break clause and you are considering exercising it, notice must typically be served by this point. Take legal advice on the exact requirements and do not miss the deadline.
6 months out Heads of terms should be agreed, whether for renewal, a new lease or a surrender. Solicitors should be instructed and the legal process underway.
The worst outcome is arriving at 3 months out with no decision made. At that point, you have lost your leverage and your options narrow significantly. The ADT Workplace stay vs go guide provides a more detailed framework for working through this process.
Getting the Right Support Before You Decide
The lease-end moment is too important to navigate without independent advice. The risk of defaulting to renewal by inertia, or rushing into relocation without properly costing the alternatives, is significant.
ADT Workplace works with leadership teams at the point where property decisions and workplace strategy intersect. We help businesses understand how their current space is being used, model the cost of each path forward, and build the case for landlord negotiations before any commitment is made.
We cover Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and the wider North of England, and work with businesses from 50 to 500 people across professional services, financial services, technology and the public sector.
If your lease is expiring in the next 12 to 24 months, or if you have a break clause approaching, the right time to have that conversation is now, not when the deadline is six weeks away.
