Office Space Sharing Agreement Template

Co-working Space Agreement TERMS AND CONDITIONS of the business centre agreement between THE CLIENT and iKeva Venture and Knowledge Advisory Services Pvt Ltd (iKeva): 1. This Agreement 1.1 Nature of this agreement: This business centre agreement is a mere permission for the Client to use the Premises and other facilities of the Centre.
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Shared Office Agreement
Office Space Sharing Agreement Template Agreement
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Office Space Sharing Agreement Template Printable

Always put your agreement in writing when sharing office space with another small business. To get started, use this sample office sharing agreement as a model in preparing your own. This one is for a group of compatible professionals—a few lawyers, a financial planner, and a website developer—but you can adapt it to your own situation.

An office sharing agreement template is a sample document that can help you write your own office sharing contract.3 min read

1. What to Include in an Office Sharing Agreement
2. How to Create an Office Sharing Agreement

An office sharing agreement template is a sample document that can help you write your own office sharing contract. The agreement should contain the names of everyone sharing the office, the date of the agreement, and a few other specifics related to office management.

What to Include in an Office Sharing Agreement

Office sharing agreements are common among groups of compatible professionals such as lawyers, website developers, and financial planners. Whatever the nature of your business arrangement, an office sharing agreement comes in handy when two or more professionals share the same office space. A strong office sharing agreement should include sections on:

Management: each party involved in the office sharing agreement should have a vote regarding office matters; one party may be elected the managing party to carry out daily office operations
Property: include a detailed list of property each party owns in the office along with the item's approximate value; list all jointly owned items including equipment, furnishings, and other materials
Clients: each party is responsible for their own clients
Accounts: specify that each party is responsible for their own client accounts, which includes receiving and deposit their own fees
Separateness: all parties agree not to represent one another in any way other than sharing an office space
Employees: since most shared offices have at least one receptionist and possibly other shared employees, the agreement should state what's expected of these employees in terms of confidentiality and how to communicate with clients
Withdrawal: if a party loses their license or professional certification, they are considered to have withdrawn from the office sharing agreement, and another professional may be added to the office space with the consent of existing parties
Insurance: each party should have their own liability insurance when required
Signatures: the agreement should end with a section for each party's signature and the date upon which the agreement was signed

How to Create an Office Sharing Agreement

It's essential to put your office sharing agreement in writing to avoid confusion in the future, especially if you share the space with another small business. Using an office sharing agreement template as a guide will help.

The agreement assumes all parties are listed on the property's master lease, but not all landlords allow that situation. In this case, one party must become the master tenant and sublet the additional spaces to colleagues. The agreement should include a provision stating the terms of the master lease.

A sample office sharing agreement might appear as follows:

This office sharing agreement is made between [the names of those sharing the space], who intend to share the office located at [the office address]. [Person 1] is a [professional title], [Person 2] is a [professional title], etc.

We agree to share the office suite in order to save resources and money as well as benefit from one another's skills, knowledge, experience, and company.
We will share the entire office suite at [address] as described in this office sharing agreement. [Names of all involved] will have their own private office space while [applicable names] will share a single office as described in the agreement.
Only the people listed in this agreement are sharing the office space.
No one may sublease an individual space without the others' consent.
The lease on the office suite at [address] begins on [date] and has a term of [X number of] years. We plan to stay for the entire term of the lease. If anyone wishes to leave before then, that person is responsible for rent until a replacement tenant is found.
Each party is a lessor under the lease of our landlord, [landlord's name], and we are jointly responsible for rent and other lease-related expenses.
All of us will share the office's common areas, including the kitchen, reception area, conference room, and bathrooms.
Each of us will have our own phone lines installed.
We will have meetings the first [day of the week] each month to discuss office sharing concerns and vote on any issues.
We all agree to keep common areas clean and to maintain our own private office supplies. We will cooperate to supply the bathrooms and kitchen and agree to clean up after ourselves.

Signed, [the names of all parties involved and the date].

If you need help with an office sharing agreement template, post your job on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

If you’re considering sharing a workspace – such as a room, office or clinic – you may think you need to set up a full retail or commercial lease. However you don’t have to lock yourself and your tenant into a rigid lease agreement to share a workspace. Instead, you can set up a licence to occupy with a Shared Office Space or Licence Agreement.

What’s the difference between a lease and a licence?

A lease is a registerable interest in the property in exchange for rent and is for the exclusive use of the tenant for a specified term. A licence, on the other hand, gives the licensee a right to use a space in a particular way, for a fee. Both have their positives and negatives, but a licence may be highly beneficial for both landlords and licensee in some cases.

Use a Shared Office Space Arrangement when you want to rent a commercial space to somebody (called a licensee) for their non-exclusive use. This space could be a space that’s shared among a number of licensees, or one that the landlord can share or freely access. A ‘space’ can include (but is not limited to):

a room;
shared office space/work space (such as in a factory);
an area in a retail store, a clinic, a chair (such as a hairdresser chair);
a booth/kiosk;
storage space in a garage; or
a studio.

A lease, on the other hand, gives the tenant exclusive access to the premises and provides them with an interest in the property that is only one step down from ownership. Obviously, this is not ideal for a landlord who requires ongoing access to their property or wishes to share the space.

An example of how a Shared Office Arrangement works

Consider a pharmacist who rents out space (often a small room or a partitioned area) to a nutrition consultant. The licensee (the nutritionist) will be able to work from this space within the premises, but the licensor (the pharmacist) will retain access.

The nutritionist (the licensee) pays a licence fee to retain this space for ongoing use, and the licence will usually include facilities, amenities and outgoings. The licensor and licensee would share things like the toilets, storage areas, waiting areas, kitchen area, common areas and reception areas (facilities), as well as refrigeration, tea and coffee making facilities, laboratory equipment (amenities) etc. depending upon the business and needs of the licensee.

While the licensee would be able to use these facilities and amenities, they would not be required to pay for rates or electricity for these, as the licence fee would cover their share of outgoings.

The convenience of a Shared Office Arrangement rests primarily with the shared use – on days where a licensee isn’t using the shared workspace, their space can be used by the landlord or another licensee.

Office space sharing agreement template education

Putting the arrangement in writing is easy and gives you peace of mind

Most situations in life work better when everyone knows the groundrules. If you're sharing a workspace you want the peace of mind of knowing that the other parties know what the rules are and follow them.

Shared Office Agreement

You can use a our workspace sharing template to formalise the groundrules for using the space - it covers things like:

licence fees - amount , frequency, method of payment
bond amount
rental term
care of the premises
indemnity
breaches to the agreement

The shared office space agreement template is available as a Word document which means you simply need to add and edit information to suit your circumstances.

Who benefits?

The Landlord benefits by earning extra income, offering diversity in complementary products or services that may improve their business, or filling an area that would otherwise be vacant.
For the licensee, the benefits are flexibility, not being tied down to a lease, not paying dead rent for space they don’t use and – as with the landlord – being able to offer a cooperative product or service that may be complementary to their own product or service.

Unlike a lease – which can heavily restrict both landlords and leases in the above cases – a licence does not fall under the legislation of a residential, commercial or retail lease, so it’s a much more flexible arrangement and can be highly beneficial when both parties desire flexibility.

Caution needs to be taken, though, as some landlords have been known to pass off leases as licences, which is illegal. Regardless of what a landlord calls a lease, it’s still a lease and is bound to the same legislation and regulations, so just calling a ‘lease’ a ‘licence’ is not sufficient by law. A licence is a far simpler document that has terminology and language that is significantly different to that of a lease, so really, there should be no confusion if you use the correct documentation!

Resources

This agreement is used when the 'Licensor' occupies office space and they wish to rent a portion of it to another called the 'Licensee.' It sets out the terms of the space rental, placing clear boundaries on the relationship. It ensures that each party understands their obligations and covers the essential issues like licence fees, bond amount, frequency, method of payment and so forth. See Shared Office licence page for full list of provisions.

When to use a Licence to occupy instead of a Lease?

Are you thinking of renting out a room, clinic or office? You may not need a full Retail or Commercial Lease to cover your arrangement because a Shared Office Space or Licence Agreement may suit your needs.

This article first appeared on Flying Solo at http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/finance/paperwork-shared-workspace