Free Arkansas Commercial Lease Agreement Template

An Arkansas commercial lease agreement rents non-residential property — a storefront, an office, a shop building, a warehouse — to a tenant running a business from it. Arkansas regulates business tenancies lightly, so the statutes governing an Arkansas commercial lease agreement are close to the whole of what the state imposes.

Everything past that comes from what the two sides write down. That makes the lease itself the main protection either party has.

Two provisions carry most of the state’s input.

Putting the Lease in Writing

Ark. Code § 4-59-101(a)(5) blocks any action brought on a lease of lands, tenements, or hereditaments for a longer term than one year unless the agreement, or a memorandum of it, is in writing and signed by the party being charged, or by another person properly authorized by them. Subsection (a)(6) catches agreements that cannot be performed within a year of being made, which can reach a shorter lease with a long lead-in.

When Holding On Becomes Unlawful Detainer

Ark. Code § 18-60-304 defines what turns continued occupation into an unlawful detainer. Three of its grounds reach a commercial tenancy directly:

• Holding over any land, tenement, or possession after the time it was let for has run out.
• Obtaining possession peaceably and lawfully, then holding it willfully and unlawfully after a written demand for surrender from the person entitled to possession, or their agent or attorney.
• Failing or refusing to pay rent when due and then refusing to quit, after three days’ notice to quit and a written demand for possession.

Three days, where the problem is unpaid rent. Under Ark. Code § 18-60-304(3) the landlord serves a notice to quit together with a written demand for possession, and a tenant who then refuses to give up the premises is in unlawful detainer.

Two details in the wording matter. The demand has to be in writing, and it has to come from the person entitled to possession or from their agent or attorney — not from anyone else with an interest in the building. Where the lease has simply run its course, subsection (1) treats holding over past the let period as unlawful detainer on its own terms.

1. Agree the commercial terms: rent and increases, the term, renewal rights, and who pays taxes, insurance, and repairs.
2. Put the lease in writing for any term longer than one year, as Ark. Code § 4-59-101 requires.
3. Have the party being bound sign it, or someone they properly authorized.
4. Write in the cure period and notice procedure you want, since the statute sets only what triggers an unlawful detainer claim.
5. Keep a fully signed original, and give the other side theirs the same day.

With the state saying little, the document has to do the work. Cover at least:

• Legal names of landlord and tenant, including the entity rather than only the signer.
• A description of the premises precise enough to identify the space and any shared areas.
• Rent, the due date, and how increases are calculated.
• Term, renewal options, and holdover terms.
• Responsibility for utilities, taxes, insurance, and each category of repair.
• What the space may be used for, and whether the tenant can assign or sublet it.
• A notice address for each party, and the method notices must use.