Expression of Interest from Corporate Tenant

When you need it

A prospective corporate tenant has found premises it is seriously interested in — an office floor, a coworking suite, a corporate address in a business park — and wants to put that interest in writing before any term sheet or lease is negotiated: who is asking, the premises, the approximate area and use, an indicative budget and timeline, and a request for floor plans, pricing and current availability. It is deliberately light — no rent, deposit or lock-in is agreed here, and it creates no obligation on the tenant to lease or on the recipient to let. Send it to whoever controls the premises — the owner, the developer marketing the project, or a broker acting for either — as the first written step, well before the lease itself. The lease that eventually follows is a separate instrument: one for more than a year needs registration under s.107 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and s.17(1)(d) of the Registration Act, 1908, and this letter neither creates that lease nor is a step that can be skipped by relying on it. Not for a residential letting, and not once the parties have actually agreed commercial terms — at that point a term sheet or letter of intent recording the agreed figures is the more honest document, because this one is written to record interest, not agreement.

What follows is written for Punjab and Chandigarh. It states the position there rather than describing how it varies, so the amounts below are the ones that apply — worth confirming at the sub-registrar’s office, because rates change. If the property is anywhere else in India, none of this is yours.