Free Tennessee Commercial Lease Agreement Template

A Tennessee commercial lease agreement rents non-residential property — a storefront, an office, a warehouse, a workshop — to a tenant who will run a business there. Chapter 7 of Title 66 covers leases generally, and Chapter 28 is the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

Chapter 28 has an unusual limit. Under § 66-28-102(a), it applies only in counties with a population of more than 75,000 according to the 2010 federal census, and it reaches rental agreements entered into, extended, or renewed after 1 July 1975. A business tenancy sits outside it entirely.

One section in Chapter 7 is written for commercial property, and it gives the tenant a right worth exercising.

The Code Compliance Disclosure

Tenn. Code § 66-7-108(a) applies where the commercial property space is 1,500 square feet or less, or the industrial real property is 5,000 square feet or less. At the request of a prospective tenant, the owner must furnish a signed disclosure statement detailing the extent to which the property is understood by the owner to comply with local and state fire, plumbing, and electrical codes for a building of the type under construction.

The obligation is triggered by the request rather than owed automatically. Where an item required to be disclosed is unknown or unavailable to the owner at the time, the owner may state that it is unknown.

What Happens If the Disclosure Is Wrong

Subsection (b) applies where the owner knowingly misrepresents information required to be disclosed. The lessee then has remedies at the lessee’s own option, one of which is an action for actual damages suffered.

A time limit applies to that route. An action for actual damages must be commenced within one year from the date the lessee received the disclosure statement, or the date of occupancy, whichever occurs first.

Subsection (c) preserves everything else. Nothing in the section affects other remedies at law or in equity otherwise available against an owner in the event of intentional or wilful misrepresentation of the condition of the property.

Whatever the lease says. This is the point most sources get wrong about Tennessee.

The notice periods in Tenn. Code § 66-7-109 — fourteen days for unpaid rent, thirty days for other lease defaults, three days on danger grounds — are each written for the eviction of a residential tenant, and subsection (g) disapplies the section entirely in counties governed by the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. None of them sets the notice owed to a business tenant.

The practical consequence is that a Tennessee commercial lease agreement is the operative source of any cure period, any pre-suit notice, and any termination procedure. A lease that leaves those out leaves both parties relying on general contract principles and the detainer procedure rather than on a statutory timetable.

1. Settle the rent, the review mechanism, the term, and where insurance, tax, and repair duties sit.
2. Request the code compliance disclosure in writing if the space falls under the § 66-7-108 thresholds.
3. Write in the notice and cure periods you want, since the statutory figures are residential.
4. Record who is responsible for bringing the premises up to code, and by when.
5. Execute the lease and keep the disclosure statement filed with it.

With the residential notice rules inapplicable, a Tennessee commercial lease agreement supplies the timetable:

• Legal names of landlord and tenant, and the entity behind each signature.
• A description of the premises, with the square footage stated.
• Rent, the due date, and the basis for any increase.
• The term, renewal rights, and what a holdover creates.
• A pre-suit notice requirement and cure period for rent and for other defaults.
• Which party warrants code compliance, and who bears the cost of remedial work.
• How taxes, insurance, and utility charges divide, and who must approve a sublet.