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Practice · As of: July 2026 · Legal position after BEG IV

Lease checklist: 12 clauses you should know

Commercial leases are a matter of negotiation: almost nothing is capped by law, almost everything is a matter of clauses. These twelve points determine cost-effectiveness, flexibility and risk.

7 min read
By Jan von Urff · published 22/07/2026 · updated 21/09/2026
In short

Which clauses matter most in a German commercial lease?

Commercial leases are subject to few statutory limits; what matters includes our twelve clauses. These cover written form, indexation, service charges, maintenance, reinstatement, subletting, protection against competitors and renewal options. Each of them is negotiable and has a direct effect on the tenant's costs, flexibility and risk.

01 Term & form

  1. 1
    Term & renewal option weigh a fixed term against a unilateral option for the tenant. The option is a one-sided right and therefore only works in your favour.
  2. 2
    Text form instead of written form since 1 January 2025, text form is sufficient for commercial leases of more than one year (§§ 578, 550, 126b BGB). In theory an email or PDF is enough, yet 99.9 % of office leases in Hamburg are still signed in the original. Since January 2026 this also applies to existing leases.
  3. 3
    Document addenda text form or not, every change to space, rent or term needs to be recorded, otherwise two memories will argue later.

02 What the rent really costs

  1. 4
    Index-linked rent linking the rent to the consumer price index is permitted under the German Price Clause Act; a commitment of at least ten years on the tenant's side is usual. Thresholds (adjustment only after an index change of X %, for example) or suspensions are negotiable.
  2. 5
    Review of standard terms according to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), standard-form index clauses are fully subject to the law on general terms and conditions; unclear clauses can be invalid and lead to repayment claims.
  3. 6
    Stepped rent freely agreeable in commercial leases, easier to plan than an index and often the cheaper option in years of high inflation.
  4. 7
    Service charges in commercial leases they can largely be passed on freely, often including management costs. Read the list of recoverable costs item by item and cap what you can.
Almost nothing is capped by law, almost everything is down to the clauses.From this article

03 Getting in, and out again

  1. 8
    Decorative repairs rigid schedules make the clause invalid in commercial leases too (BGH, judgment of 8 October 2008, XII ZR 84/06). Without a valid clause, the space is returned swept clean.
  2. 9
    Removal of fit-out without a contractual rule you may have to remove all fit-out when you move out (§ 546 BGB), which is a financial risk with a high-quality fit-out. Agree in the lease what stays.
  3. 10
    Security deposit the residential cap of three months' rent does not apply to commercial leases. Amount and form (cash deposit, bank guarantee) are freely negotiable. In Hamburg it is usually three months' gross rent plus VAT or more.

04 Protective clauses

  1. 11
    Subletting no use by third parties without consent (§ 540 BGB); if the landlord refuses without good cause relating to the third party, you gain a special right of termination. Growing teams actively negotiate a subletting right into the lease.
  2. 12
    Protection from competition established case law treats it as applying within the same building even if unwritten; an explicit clause (or a deliberate exclusion) creates clarity.

The Hamburg angle: prime rents jumped by 14% at the end of 2025. If you have an index-linked lease from previous years, review the clause and the base index now, before the next adjustment lands.

Not legal advice: this article is no substitute for a review by a lawyer.

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