Month-to-Month Office Lease Agreement: What It Must Say Before You Sign

Notice and renewal: the clauses that decide when you can leave

• Notice period. Find the number of days, the date the count starts, and the form the notice has to take. If notice only counts from the first of the following month, 30 days can become nearly 60.
• Automatic renewal. Check whether the agreement renews by itself, for how long each time, and how early you must cancel to stop it.

Red flag: an agreement sold as monthly that carries a minimum commitment of several months, or that renews for a period longer than a month.

Price increases: when the rate can change

A monthly agreement fixes the price only until the next renewal. Read for three things: how long the opening rate is held, how much warning the operator must give before raising it, and whether any limit applies. Then look for one-time charges, such as a setup fee or a service fee on the way in or out.

Red flag: the operator can raise the price on less notice than you need to leave. In that case the new rate applies before you can get out.

The deposit: what is held, and how it comes back

• The amount, and whether it grows when you add desks.
• What can be deducted from it, and whether deductions must be itemized.
• The date it is returned, counted from the day you leave.

Red flag: no return date at all. A deposit with no deadline comes back when the operator gets to it. Security deposit explains how the same questions work in a lease.

What the fee covers, and what arrives as an extra

The monthly fee looks all-inclusive until the first invoice. Ask for the list in writing:

• Meeting rooms: the hours or credits included, and the price of the next hour.
• Guests, mail and packages.
• Printing, storage and phone booths.
• Access outside staffed hours, and whether the air conditioning runs then.
• The internet tier you are on, and what a faster one costs.

Relocation, transfer and the red flags that should stop you

Many agreements allow the operator to move you to another room. Check that the new room must be comparable, that the price cannot rise because of the move, and that you may leave instead. Then check who else can enter your room, and what the agreement says if your company is acquired or renamed.

Three more red flags sit beside the ones marked above:

• You can be relocated with no right to end the agreement.
• Nothing limits who may enter your room, or on what notice.
• The agreement does not say what happens to it if the company is sold.

If any red flag on this page stands, ask for the clause to be changed before you sign. Lease red flags covers the same exercise for a lease.