May 14, 2019

How to Renegotiate Your Dental Practice Lease, Part 1

Depending on the remaining time left on the lease of your dental practice, it may be time to renegotiate the terms, which can make financial and practical sense for both the landlord and tenant. The key to a successful renegotiation is to start one to two years before your lease or renewal option comes due in order to weigh all your options in terms of staying or looking at alternative options. Here’s how to navigate the renegotiation process from both the perspective of the landlord and tenant.

Landlord

By including the renewal option within a lease, a landlord removes the uncertainty of a prior lease and instead gains a guarantee or strengthens an already-existing guarantee. The lease renegotiation process is the perfect time to ask for a lease extension and increase or decrease the rent depending on the economy and tenure of the current tenant, as well as speak with your tenant to assess the business’s needs in terms of square footage. Tenants who pay their rent on time, take care of the property, and are respectful to their neighbors can eliminate the need to create a new listing, show the space and avoid the possibility of having your space sit empty and not collecting any income, while tenants who regularly miss payments, are disruptive to neighbors, perform illegal activities or are simply difficult to work with can be forced from the space.

Tenant

The old adage of “it doesn’t hurt to ask” applies during the lease renegotiation process in which it is the optimal time to change the aspects of the lease you are dissatisfied with. Although there is no guarantee that the requests will be met, paying rent on time and being an overall good tenant will put the odds in your favor. The lease negotiation process is also a good time to have an honest conversation about the state of your business with both yourself and your landlord. Is the current space occupying your needs? Would you benefit from a decrease in rent or increase in square footage? Before considering a relocation, have a conversation with your landlord upfront to see what can be done to accommodate your growing or downsizing needs.

What’s next?

Stay tuned for next week’s post that will outline the basic needs tenants should look at when looking to renegotiate the terms of a lease. Then, contact the experts at Professional Transition Strategies to get the lease renegotiation process started.