3 errors in lease agreements that cost a company 14,200 PLN
Leasing an office in Wrocław is not just about choosing a nice view of Sky Tower or proximity to the Market Square. It is primarily hard math hidden in technical attachments, which business owners often forget about when signing a 5-year contract.
Where did the square meters go?
An advertising agency from Krzyki that we worked with in October 2024 leased an office with a declared area of 147 square meters. At least that's what was stated on the first page of the lease agreement. After three months, when the first utility and rent bills arrived, the amounts seemed too high to the CEO compared to the real size of the premises. He asked us to check the documentation and physically measure the space with a laser. It turned out that the office actually only had 128 square meters of usable area.
The remaining 19 meters were the so-called add-on factor, which was calculated incorrectly according to the BOMA standard. The building owner added part of the stairwell and a freight elevator to the rent, even though the contract spoke of adding only part of the main lobby. Because of this one entry, the company was overpaying 1,180 PLN net every month. On an annual scale, this gives an amount of 14,160 PLN thrown down the drain. This is a classic example where the lack of verification of the measurement standard before signing documents hits the company's operating budget directly.
Due to an incorrectly calculated area factor, the company overpaid 1,180 PLN net every month for a corridor it didn't use.
The service charge trap
The second mistake was accepting an open catalog of service charges. The contract stated that the tenant covers the costs of building maintenance, but the list of these costs was not closed. The building manager on Wyścigowa St decided to finance the replacement of air conditioning in common areas from these payments, which should be an investment cost for the owner (CAPEX), not an operational one (OPEX). The tenants had no tools to challenge this because they signed the contract without a legal audit.
Wrocław Advisory Hub always recommends negotiating a 'closed list of service charges'. This way, you know exactly what you are paying for. If the manager wants to put up a new fence around the parking lot, they cannot do it with your money unless you left them that option in the contract. In the described case of the agency from Krzyki, we managed to recover 3,200 PLN for unfairly charged roof snow removal fees for a roof that was heated and did not require any intervention from the cleaning crew.
Rent indexation vs. real cost
We often encounter clauses about rent indexation based on the HICP or Polish CPI. In the Wrocław agency's contract, it was written that the rent increases every year by the inflation index but never falls, even if we are dealing with deflation. To make matters worse, indexation applied not only to the base rent but also to the parking space fee, which over the 5 years of the contract raised the cost of maintaining one car by an additional 83 PLN per month.
Small companies rarely calculate the cumulative cost of such increases. With 6 parking spaces and an office for 15 people, after three years this amount grew to a level that would be enough to finance a new coffee machine for the whole team. During negotiations, Wrocław Advisory Hub always strives for indexation to be based on real indicators and not include all components of the invoice, which allows for savings of around 3.2% per year.
Never agree to 'upward only' indexation. This is an unfair clause that can be deleted from the contract in 5 minutes.
Restoration to original condition
The last mistake is the clause about the necessity to restore the premises to its original condition. The owner required the company to dismantle glass walls worth 22,000 PLN, which he had previously accepted. The cost of dismantling and disposal alone was estimated at 8,400 PLN. The company had no choice because the contract was phrased unequivocally in favor of the lessor, and the lack of a 'normal wear and tear' clause gave the manager's lawyers room to maneuver.
Wrocław Advisory Hub helps avoid such surprises at the stage of handing back the office. It is enough to add detailed photographic documentation to the handover protocol and determine which elements of the arrangement become the property of the building without additional fees. In this way, the client saves not only money but, above all, the time they would have to spend supervising a renovation crew in the last week of moving out.
