The situation
The landlord’s draft lease for retail premises, uploaded
A Danish furniture retailer is opening shops in Prague and Madrid. Both landlords have sent their standard leases: ten years fixed in Prague, five plus five in Madrid. Counsel has to tell the expansion team which clauses stand, which the law overrides and what to negotiate.
Most of a commercial lease is contract. The work is finding the few points where the statute decides: how a fixed term can end early, what deposit the law requires, what happens if the building is sold, and whether the tenant gets anything for the customer base it leaves behind.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Spain: the parties set most terms
- The Spanish Urban Leases Act lets the parties agree most terms of a lease for use other than housing. Where the contract is silent, the Act’s rules for such leases apply, and then the Civil Code.
- Spain: a statutory deposit
- A cash deposit of two months’ rent is required for business premises, and parties often add guarantees by contract. Regional rules can require the deposit to be lodged with a public body.
- Czech Republic: rules for business premises
- The Czech Civil Code has specific provisions for leases of premises used for business, including grounds on which a fixed-term lease can be ended early. How far the parties can depart from them is what the review settles clause by clause.
- Compensation for the customer base
- Czech law can give a tenant compensation where the lease ends on the landlord’s notice and the landlord or a new tenant benefits from the customer base the tenant built. Spanish law has a comparable indemnity in some circumstances. Both are worth addressing in the lease.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Attached are draft leases for retail units in Prague (10-year fixed term) and Madrid (5+5 years). We are the tenant. Which clauses on early termination, deposit, indexation, assignment and sale of the building are overridden or limited by Czech and Spanish tenancy law?
You start with
The landlord’s draft lease for retail premises, uploaded
- 01
Upload the draft leases
Add both leases in their original language. azta reads them and refers back to the clause behind each point.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research the mandatory rules
Ask which tenancy rules apply to business premises in each country and which the parties can exclude. azta cites the Czech Civil Code and the Spanish Urban Leases Act.
Cited research· Free - 03
Check each clause against the rule
Ask azta to go through the leases clause by clause and flag where a clause conflicts with a mandatory rule or leaves a statutory point open.
File upload· Pro - 04
Write the review
Ask for a review table: clause, issue, legal position and proposed change. Edit it in Canvas for the expansion team.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A review of each key clause against the mandatory tenancy rules
What you get
A review of each key clause against the mandatory tenancy rules
Lease review · draft
Prague and Madrid leases: clauses to negotiate
Prague, clause 12 (termination). The draft lets only the landlord end the lease early. The Civil Code gives the tenant of business premises its own grounds for early termination. We will ask the landlord to confirm in the lease that these remain available, and we propose a break option after year five.
Madrid, clause 6 (deposit and guarantees). The statutory deposit of two months’ rent is correct. The first-demand bank guarantee of twelve months’ rent is contractual; we propose six months, reducing after year three.
Both leases, sale of the building. Neither draft says what happens to the lease if the landlord sells. We propose a clause confirming that the lease continues with the buyer and that the deposit passes to the buyer.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
15 minutes a month
At €110 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 38
- Capacity at your rate
- €4,158
- More lease reviews a quarter
- 2.1
- Return on Pro
- 12.8×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoWhat stays with you
- The commercial terms: rent, incentives and fit-out.
- Deciding which points to trade.
- Local counsel’s sign-off where you need it.
Frequently asked questions
- Can azta review against our own lease standards?
- Upload your standards with the lease and azta reviews against both. On Enterprise, the knowledge space keeps approved positions cited separately from the law.
- Does it cover Spain’s regional rules?
- It searches the national legislation in the BOE collection. Regional rules may also apply, for example to where the deposit is lodged, so check the region’s own rules where the answer depends on them.
- Can I upload a lease in Czech or Spanish?
- Yes. azta reads the lease in its original language and answers in English, citing the clause and the provision.
