It is not unusual for a tenant to be allowed early access to a building for the purpose of fitting it out. Special issues may arise, however, where the grant of the lease is conditional on the developer/landlord constructing the premises, but the tenant’s fit out is of such a scale that the main fabric of the building cannot be completed until the tenant’s fixtures and fittings have been installed.
Such a situation may arise, for example, where the tenant’s operation uses large pieces of machinery, such as the large-scale kilns which are often used in the ever-increasing number of recycling facilities in the UK. In these circumstances, consideration must be given not just to the installation of the tenant’s fittings but also to their removal during or at the end of the lease term, and also the position of any third parties (e.g. chargees) who may be affected.
