Deed of Surrender of a Lease

What is an agreement to surrender?

This is our Deed of Surrender of a Lease template. You can use this template to create a legal deed for a tenant to surrender a commercial lease agreement to their landlord. Also you can use it to surrender a residential lease. Use it for land / buildings in England and Wales, but not Scotland.

You can easily complete this document to effect the surrender of any type of lease.

An experienced lawyer (David, our co-founder) drafted the template for reliability and to make it simple to complete. Detailed drafting notes are included with your download and you can read an abbreviated guide that covers the clauses unique to this Deed of Surrender – click the link.

Using this Deed of Surrender of a Lease template

You can download the template in Word format and save it to your computer. Then you can quickly edit and complete the Deed.  Once completed both the landlord and the tenant need to sign the deed in the presence of a witness, who must then add their signature to the Deed.

You can reuse the template as many times as you wish. However, you might only need this particular type of template once. Nevertheless, we will email you with a free update of the template if we amend it in the future. Legalo provide you with a template for life at no further cost.

What is the Surrender of a Lease?

The landlord and tenant use a deed of surrender of a lease to return the property to the landlord:

• where the tenant no longer wishes to lease the property; and
• the tenant agrees with the landlord to return it early.

It is ideal for surrendering a lease created from a business lease agreement template, such as the one we also offer.

Our Deed of Surrender of Lease template is for use where the landlord and tenant have agreed to terminate early. For a lease that is registered at the Land Registry, you can use a TR1 to surrender it. However, most parties prefer to use a deed of surrender, as it is a more appropriate starting point. The Land Registry actually recommend you use a deed of surrender.

Options in our Deed of Surrender

This deed of surrender incorporates various options, so it is appropriate whether or not:
1. the lease is “old” or “new” lease for the purposes of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995;
2. there is a guarantor of the tenant’s obligations under the lease;
3. the lease is registered at the Land Registry; or
4. there is an option to renew the lease on expiry (called “security of tenure”).

We have designed this deed of surrender so you can use it to surrender the whole of the leased site. However, with suitable adaptation, you can use it as a surrender of part of the leased site.

If the landlord is granting a new site to the tenant as part of the surrender, use a separate document. You would issue a new lease for that new area and sign it at the same time as the surrender. A template for a commercial lease for this purpose is available from Legalo’s website.

If you would like to read further information on what a Deed of Surrender is, then have a look at this page on the Investopedia website.

Click the link to see the full range of commercial property documents we offer. If there’s ever anything you need that you cannot find quickly, just get in touch with us, as we are always happy to help.

FAQs on a deed of surrender

Below, we have answered the most popular questions from the Internet on deeds of surrender of leases.

What are the requirements for a Deed of Surrender?

A Deed of Surrender is a document that you can use legally to give up or bring to an end a lease between the landlord and the tenant. It is generally only used for commercial leases, as long residential leases can be resold, so are generally not surrendered.  A very experienced solicitor has prepared our Deed of Surrender. So we can assure you that it will cover all the essential provisions you need in this situation.

How do you write a surrender of tenancy? How do I write a letter of surrender for a tenancy?

While you can draft your own document for a deed of surrender of a lease, you will find that using a template from Legalo is (a) much faster and (b) ensures you don’t leave any essential provisions out or word them in the wrong way. Legalo’s template will help you avoid mistakes and frustration.

Do you need to register a Deed of Surrender? Does a deed of surrender need to be registered?

If your lease was originally granted for a terms of over 7 years, then you would have been required to register it at the Land Registry when it was granted. If so, you will now, in addition to the deed of surrender, need a form from the Land Registry to apply for the registration of the surrender of the lease, in order to remove the lease’s title at the Land Registry. You keep the original of the deed of surrender and just send the Land Registry a certified true copy of it. The main form for the application to the Land Registry is an AP1 and if any of the parties are not using a solicitor, then you will need ID1 or ID2 forms for them too. The landlord will also need to apply for removal of the leasehold interest from its freehold title, by a separate application.

If the lease was originally for a shorter term than 7 years when granted, then the lease would not be registered. Hence you would not need to register the surrender of such a short lease.

Do you have to use a TR1 to surrender a registered lease? Is a TR1 a deed of surrender?

You would not use a TR1 form to surrender a lease. Instead, a Deed of Surrender is the document you should use to surrender the lease.  Have a look at our Deed of Surrender template for a comprehensive document, which you will find easy and quick to use.

Who drafts the Deed of Surrender? Who prepares the Deed of Surrender?

The landlord normally prepares the deed of surrender, but sometimes they will ask the tenant to prepare it. We have drafted a Deed of Surrender that will cover all your legal needs with regard to formally surrendering a lease, whether it is on behalf of the tenant or the landlord.  This will save you time and money, whilst you can be sure that this document has been drafted by a UK solicitor with 25 or more years’ experience.

Is a Deed of Surrender legally binding?

The main point is that the deed has to be in terms that are acceptable to the landlord or the surrender will not be accepted. If both parties have agreed the terms and signed a deed of surrender, then it will be legally binding. It is important to ensure that you draft the Deed of Surrender properly, that all relevant parties sign it in the presence of a witness, to establish its legal validity and enforceability.

Can a tenant surrender a lease?

Yes, a tenant can surrender a lease by voluntarily terminating the lease agreement before its scheduled expiry date. However, the tenant will need the landlord’s permission to do so.

The tenant may initiate the surrender by writing to the landlord requesting its consent to their surrendering the lease. One of them then produces the deed of surrender document, they sign and date it and (if needed) register it at the Land Registry.

What is a Deed of Surrender of tenancy form? What is an example of surrender of tenancy?

You will know by now that this is a form of legal document that serves formally to terminate the lease between landlord and tenant before its scheduled expiry date.  We have prepared such a document that will do this job for you. In the deed, you can specify the terms and conditions of the surrender. For example:

• whether the landlord requires any compensation payment in order to release the tenant from the lease early, or
• any dilapidations payment if the property is not in the condition that the lease requires at its expiry date.

What is an agreement to surrender?

An agreement to surrender is the same as a deed of surrender of a lease. As noted above, the landlord will need to grant its approval to the draft document before the tenant can use it.

How to do a deed of surrender

This is best done using Legalo’s great template. Once the land lord has agreed in principle to the surrender, then you fill in the details in the template. Both parties check it and, when all is agreed, both parties sign it. You date it once they have both signed. The tenant pays the landlord any agreed compensation payment and moves out promptly, returning the keys.

How do I surrender a tenancy agreement UK? How do you negotiate a surrender of tenancy?

The first step is for the tenant to contact the landlord and ask if it is willing to allow the tenant to surrender the remaining term of the lease. If the landlord is willing, then there is the question of whether the landlord wants a sum paid by the tenant in compensation and on what date the lease will terminate. If the parties agree the main issues, then one or the other needs to draft the deed of surrender. Normally this would be the landlord, but if the landlord agrees then the tenant can do this.

Who signs a deed of surrender?

The landlord and the tenant both need to sign the deed of surrender.

What to do if a tenant does not return keys

If the tenant does not return the keys, there is little option but to change the locks (once the tenant has left of course). The landlord should charge the tenant for the cost of this or take it out of any security deposit, if any.