Before you sign anything, ask these.

1. Who will you actually be dealing with day to day?

Not who shows you around — who picks up the phone when something needs fixing. Who makes decisions about your lease. Who you’ll be speaking to in six months when the heating plays up or you want to talk about renewing.

In an agent-led market, the person who showed you the space may have no ongoing involvement once you move in. Your query goes to a property management team, which goes to the landlord, which goes back. That chain adds time and distance to every interaction.

When you rent direct from a landlord — as you do with us — the people you deal with at the start are the same people you deal with throughout. It sounds like a small thing. It isn’t.

The best landlord relationship is one where you barely have to think about it. The space just works, and the person responsible for it is easy to reach when it doesn’t.

2. What is the space actually going to cost you?

The headline rent is rarely the whole story. Before you compare properties, get a clear answer on: what’s included in the rent (furniture, broadband, utilities, cleaning); whether there’s a service charge and how it’s calculated; what costs you’d be taking on that aren’t in the headline figure.

A serviced office at a higher monthly rate can work out cheaper than a leased space once you factor in the costs of setting it up and running it. The only way to compare honestly is to know the full picture on both sides.

We give our tenants that picture from the first conversation. It’s one of the things we think direct landlords do better than the alternative.

3. What flexibility does the lease actually give you?

Your business will change. The question is whether your lease can change with it.

Ask specifically: is there a break clause, and what are the conditions? What notice is required to exercise it? If you grow faster than expected, can you move to a larger space? If you need to contract, what are your options?

A rigid lease signed in a period of uncertainty can become an expensive problem. The businesses that tend to manage best are the ones that understood the flexibility — or lack of it — before they signed, not after.

4. Does the space fit the way your team actually works?

This sounds obvious. It’s surprising how often it gets skipped.

Before you view a space, be specific about what you need it to do. How many people will use it, and how often? Do you need client-facing meeting rooms, or mostly heads-down working space? How important is natural light? Is parking essential, or just useful?

The right space for a six-person creative studio is a very different thing from the right space for a decentralised corporate team using it as a regional hub. Neither is wrong — but the match between the space and the way you work makes an enormous difference to whether it feels like a good decision a year in.

5. What does the building tell you about who owns it?

This is the one most people don’t think to ask — and it’s often the most revealing.

Walk around the building before you view the office. Is it well-maintained? Are the communal areas clean? Is there evidence of recent investment? Does it feel like somewhere a landlord is proud of, or somewhere that’s been left to manage itself?

A building that’s been cared for tells you something about the landlord you’ll be dealing with. One that hasn’t tells you something too.

We invest in our buildings because they’re ours and because the people in them matter to us. That shows up in the fabric of the buildings — and in the experience of being a tenant in them.

One more thing

If you can’t get a straight answer to any of these questions before you sign, that in itself is useful information.

The right landlord relationship starts with clarity. We’re always happy to answer all five of these questions — and any others you have — before anything is agreed.

View our current office and commercial availability at weirbankgroup.co.uk/properties, or get in touch directly at weirbankgroup.co.uk/contact.