What To Check Before You Sign A Commercial Lease In Ajman
Most tenants sign a commercial lease in Ajman having compared one number: the yearly rent. That is the figure the market talks about and the one that matters least. A shop at the same rent as the unit next door can cost twice as much to run, depending on what was written down — or left out — before the first cheque.
Here is the list we would want a tenant to work through before signing anything, in the order it actually bites.
"Rent is what you agree to pay. Everything else on this page is what you will actually pay."
KPS Real Estate1. The Condition You Are Taking The Unit In
Ask in writing whether the unit is bare shell, fitted out, or sold with the previous tenant's joinery left in place. A "fitted out" shop that hands over with the air-conditioning removed is not fitted out. Walk it with the landlord or manager present and photograph what you are being given — the handover list should match those photographs.
2. Cheque Count, Dates And The Registration Step
Ajman commercial tenancies are registered, and the payment schedule is normally a set of post-dated cheques across the year. Confirm how many cheques, which months they land in, and what happens if a renewal figure is agreed but the registration is done late. A schedule that front-loads your cheques against a slow season is a cash-flow problem you will discover in month three.
3. Service Charges, And What They Cover
Some buildings include common-area electricity, water, lift maintenance and cleaning in the rent; some bill them separately; some bill them separately and increase them mid-term. Get the split in writing and ask specifically who pays for the air-conditioning plant and the water pump — those two are where surprise invoices come from.
4. Signage, Frontage And Trading Hours
A ground-floor unit is only worth its rent if you can put your name on it. Ask whether signage is permitted and where, whether the building allows the hours your trade needs, and whether deliveries can use the entrance you are looking at. Shops have lost more custom to a blocked signboard than to a bad rent.
5. Fit-Out Approval And Who Owns It After You Leave
If you are building out the interior, ask who approves the work, whether the fit-out becomes the landlord's at the end of the term, and whether you are obliged to strip it back to shell. Restoring a shop to bare shell at your own cost, in the last month of a lease you are not renewing, is the most expensive line on the sheet.
6. Renewal Terms Agreed At The Start
Ask what the renewal increase mechanism is and write it down. A percentage cap, or a stated figure for the second year, costs a landlord nothing to agree and saves you from negotiating in the last two weeks of a lease while your trade is running.
7. Who Fixes What, And How Fast
Find out whether maintenance is handled by the owner's own staff or by a contractor on call-out, and get a realistic answer on response time for electrics, water and air-conditioning. In a building the owner still manages, the same office that took your cheque is the office that has to answer the phone — which is the only reason a tenant should care who owns the place.
If You Are Renting From The Owner Directly
Everything above is easier to settle when there is no agency between you and the deed. The figures, the handover condition and the maintenance answer all come from one office, and they stay the same at renewal because there is nobody else to renegotiate with.
We hold our commercial units in the Gold Souk area, Al Jurf 3, Al Rumailah and along the Corniche. Tell us the use, the size and the budget and we will send back what we actually have — or tell you we have nothing that fits.
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