Planning permission obligation for tenant.

Hi,

I'm about to lease a commercial unit,due to sign a lease agreement in next few days.however as going through the agreement one of the parts I do not fully understand.
In the planning permission section of the lease its written:

"The Tenant acknowledges that the Landlord does not warrant that the Premises are constructed in accordance with planning permission and/or building regulations and that such matters and that planning permission for the Tenant’s permitted user of the Premises is entirely a matter for the Tenant."


Is that a common statement to be included in a lease?

The unit I am about to rent is a part of larger unit that landlord split into two smaller units.

thanks in advance for any advise

Get legal advice. That is a common condition - but the position should be checked by your solicitor.

mf

the statment contains two different points .
1. About the building,construction.
This basically means in (the most unusual) case of planning people coming along and saying that your unit is built against P.P. and must be dismantled you cannot sue the owner/landlord. Having rented in dozen retail premsies over thirty years in and out of shopping centres I know that there have been thousands of cases of sub-divisions of larger units that have not obtained P.P. I've never heard of a problem with any of them.
But ,just in the miniscule chance of a problem ,you are -in effect- getting fair notice that you can't sue the landlord if there is a PP problem.
A lawyer will -correctly in law-advise you to check that all is OK re planning for the sub-division. Such advice may mean a long wait for a positive response from the planners.


2. It's obviously up to you to ensure there's no PP problem regarding your own use of the premises. But you need not bother to get PP if its a normal retail business (the serving and eating of food is another matter).

Just put a clause in your contract that if you are shut down by the planning office (highly unlikely) you are allowed out of the lease. That should cover it. I presume a landlord will agree as it's the tenant's who are in the driving seat currently.