In this guide 6 sections
Lease dates slip past everyone. They sit inside signed PDFs while the diary holds only the start date, so the expiry, the review and the break option surprise you. Pull every expiry, escalation, break option and notice deadline into one register, one row per event, each with an owner and an alert that fires well before the deadline.
Why the dates slip past you
A lease is a long document. The rent review clause sits on page 31, the break option in a schedule, and the notice period in a side letter that nobody filed beside the signed copy.
The property manager who negotiated the deal leaves, and the scanned PDF stays in a shared folder named by tenant, where nobody reads it until the tenant calls. Nobody indexed what it commits you to.
Then the escalation date passes with no invoice at the new rate, a break notice arrives, and the unit sits vacant before leasing finds a replacement. The renewal option quietly lapses as well.
Which dates actually cost you money
Not every date matters equally. Four kinds cause most of the damage, each with a different trigger and a different person who must act on it before the window closes.
Write the clause number beside each one, because whoever chases a dispute later will thank you for the trail, and so will your auditor.
- Expiry and holding-over start, so you can market the unit early
- Rent review or fixed escalation dates, with the formula or index named
- Tenant break options and the notice window they must respect
- Your own notice duties, such as deposit return and renewal offers
- Rent-free periods ending, which quietly change what the ledger should bill
Build one register, one row per event
Open each signed agreement. Extract every dated obligation into one table, including those buried in schedules, side letters and amendments signed years after the original lease was executed.
Give the table columns for property, unit, tenant, clause, event type, trigger date, notice period, deadline to act, the person responsible and a confirmed flag. Six events mean six rows. Compute the deadline as the trigger date minus the notice period, so the row shows the day work must start and not the day the event lands.
Check the first pass against the signed copy, and mark each row confirmed only once a second person has read the clause aloud and agreed the date. A wrong date is worse than none.
- Property, unit and tenant entity as signed
- Clause reference and amendment number
- Trigger date and notice period in days or months
- Calculated deadline and named owner
- Status: open, actioned, waived or lapsed
Let alerts do the remembering
A sheet needs someone to open it. Software sends the alert, so the owner gets an email at ninety days, again at sixty and thirty, and the manager is copied if the row is still open.
Link the register to the rent ledger, and when a review date arrives the system proposes the new rent and holds the invoice until a person approves it.
Alerts need a person. When someone leaves, reassign their rows in one step, because otherwise the register decays the way the PDFs did and nobody trusts it again.
Start with the next twelve months
Do not digitise everything first. Sort the portfolio by next critical date and key in only the agreements that fall due in the coming twelve months, starting with the ones nearest to a deadline.
Run the register beside the old diary for a month, compare the two line by line, fix every gap you find, and only then retire the diary. Nobody enjoys that comparison.
This week, pull the five leases with the earliest expiry or review date, enter their events by hand, and note which clause surprised you most. Expect at least one surprise.
Lease critical dates register
The register is a single worksheet. It lists one dated event per row. Columns cover property and unit, tenant, clause reference, event type, trigger date, notice period, calculated deadline, owner, alert dates at ninety, sixty and thirty days, and status. Leases still waiting to be keyed in sit in a short backlog list under the table, ranked by their earliest critical date.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can a spreadsheet handle lease dates?
For a handful of leases, yes. One person must own it. As units and amendments multiply, you need automatic alerts, ownership rules and a link to the rent ledger so escalations reach the invoice.
How early should the first alert fire?
Set it by the work involved. A renewal negotiation or marketing campaign needs months of notice before the date, while a simple escalation invoice needs only a few weeks. Events with long notice periods get a first alert at ninety days, so the owner has room to act before the window closes.
Who should own each date?
Pick whoever can act on it. A leasing manager owns expiry and renewal, an accountant owns escalation billing, and every row carries a named person rather than a department mailbox that nobody checks.
What about amendments and side letters?
File each amendment as its own document. Where it changes a date or notice period, update the affected row and record the amendment number beside the clause, so the register always shows the latest wording.