Free South Dakota Commercial Lease Agreement Template

A South Dakota commercial lease agreement rents non-residential property — a storefront, an office, a warehouse, a workshop — to a tenant who will run a business there. Two chapters govern the relationship: SDCL chapter 43-32 covers the lease of real property, and SDCL chapter 21-16 covers forcible entry and detainer.

Neither is organised around a residential and commercial divide. What changed recently is not which chapter applies but how much notice the statutes require at all.

The rules that matter are the modification notice and the arrears trigger.

Changing the Terms of a Month-to-Month Lease

SDCL § 43-32-13 lets a landlord, in all leases of lands or tenements or any interest in them from month to month, modify the terms of the lease by giving written notice at least thirty days before the expiration of the month, to take effect at the expiration of that month.

The notice does the work by itself. When served on the tenant, it operates to create and establish as part of the lease the terms, rent, and conditions specified in it, if the tenant continues to hold the premises after the month ends.

The tenant gets a matching exit. A tenant may terminate the lease effective the first day of the next month by giving notice of termination to the landlord within fifteen days of receiving the notice of modification.

Three Days of Arrears

SDCL § 21-16-1(4) makes a forcible entry and detainer action maintainable where a lessee fails to pay rent for three days after it becomes due. The three days sit inside the ground itself rather than in any notice the tenant receives.

Not under the current statutes, for unpaid rent. SDCL § 21-16-2, which had required three days’ written notice to quit before proceedings could be instituted in cases arising under subdivisions 21-16-1(4), (5), and (6), was repealed in 2024.

What remains is the arrears period in § 21-16-1(4), which is a condition on when the action becomes available rather than a warning the tenant is entitled to receive. The practical consequence is that a South Dakota commercial lease agreement is now the only reliable source of a pre-suit notice or a cure period.

That makes the default clause more important here than in most states. A lease that says nothing leaves a business tenant with no statutory warning before a summons arrives.

1. Agree the rent, the review basis, the length of the term, and where insurance and repair duties fall.
2. Write in a pre-suit notice and a cure period, since the statutes no longer supply one for unpaid rent.
3. Decide whether a month-to-month arrangement suits you, knowing the landlord can restate the terms on thirty days’ notice.
4. Record a notice address for each party and how notices are delivered.
5. Execute the lease and make sure whoever handles rent knows the contractual cure period.

With the statutory notice removed, a South Dakota commercial lease agreement carries more weight than it used to:

• Legal names of landlord and tenant, and the entity behind each signature.
• A description of the premises, including any yard, dock, or parking taken with it.
• Rent, the due date, and any contractual grace period before default.
• The term, renewal rights, and what a holdover creates.
• A pre-suit notice requirement and cure period, stated expressly.
• The split of property taxes, insurance, utilities, and repair categories.
• Permitted use, transfer restrictions, and the address for service of notices.