Rental Application Form for Commercial Property

This Rental Application Form is for use when applying to rent a commercial property. If applying to rent a residential property, use our Rental Application Form for Residential Property.

This Rental Application Form is not a commercial lease. This Rental Application Form is intended for use when applying to rent commercial property such as a shop, cafe or warehouse It is not intended for residential properties.

This document captures all of the applicant's relevant information such as:

• their full name and contact details.
• name and contact details of their business.
• names of key personnel in their business.
• details of the proposed lease, such as the duration of lease, whether there are any options to renew, and the amount of any security deposit.
• the nature of their business (such as the industry or business type).
• details of any other business locations (eg if they have other shops).
• sources of revenue.
• loans that the business might have.
• details of any previous properties that the applicant has rented, or any other properties that they are currently renting.
• details of references.
• emergency contact details.

This document makes it easy for owners/property managers to quickly review any rental applications. It helps applicants to stand out from the pack, by presenting their application in an easy to follow and well organised manner. It also helps save time and money when preparing the lease, because all of the crucial information is recorded in one place, streamlining any negotiations and document preparation.

How to use this document

If the property owner manages the property themselves, then they may provide applicants with a link to this document, and ask them to fill it out and return a copy to the owner. Alternatively, the owner may download a generic version of the document in Word format and provide a copy of the Word document to each applicant. Again, applicants should fill out the form with all of their relevant information, and then return a copy to the owner. They may send it by email or physical mail, or they may hand it to the owner personally.

If the owner uses a property manager to manage the property, then the property manager may organise the application form and deal with applicants on the owner's behalf.

Some owners find that an easy way to manage this is to include a link to this document in the property advertisement.

Once the owner/manager has received copies of the document from all applicants, they can review the relevant information and contact any relevant references. If the owner/manager asks applicants to fill out this form, and some applicants do not bother to do it, this can be a good sign that they may not be responsible tenants. After reviewing all applications, the owner/manager can select their tenants, and then notify all of the applicants about their decision. As a courtesy, it is a good idea to notify all unsuccessful applicants as well as the successful applicants.

Once that is done, the owner/manager will need to prepare a commercial lease. If a lease needs to be prepared, our Commercial Lease Agreement (Non-Retail) may be used.

Applicable law

The various retail tenancy legislation in each state and territory affects some commercial leases.

A commercial lease is a contract between the landlord and the tenant, and as such, general principles of contract law, as provided by the common law, will apply.

For long term leases, legislation dealing with subdivisions in the relevant state or territory may be relevant. Laws dealing with subdivisions are often contained in conveyancing legislation or planning and land use legislation.

In some cases, real estate agents may be covered by the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth). For example, if they have an annual turnover of more than $3 million then they may be covered. Or if they opt-in to the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) then they will be covered. If the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) applies, then there will be restrictions in relation to what sort of information can be collected and how it should be handled. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner provides further information.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.