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A broker’s name is in one paragraph. You are checking whether you sign it. The paper sits flat under a desk lamp, edges slightly curled from being tucked in your briefcase for three days. The rest of the lease terms matched the verbal agreement you hammered out last week, but this single paragraph made you pause mid-signature. You lean forward to trace the fine print with the tip of your pen, no rush to put ink down until you know exactly what you’re agreeing to.
Who this paragraph names as the paid party
You first scan for every individual or firm named in the paragraph, because any listed party can submit an invoice for payment once the terms of the agreement are met. You cross-reference each name against the contact information for the brokers you worked with during your space search, which you saved in your email inbox, making sure no unassociated party is slipped in as a secondary payee. If you worked with a dual broker who represented both you and the landlord, this section should explicitly split their payment obligation between both parties, so you never cover the full fee on your own unless you agreed to that structure during negotiations. You also confirm the legal business name of each broker’s firm matches the name on the engagement agreement you signed when you first hired them, because a mismatched firm name can lead to payment delays or disputes down the line if the wrong entity submits an invoice.
Calculate the total commission obligation upfront
You pull out a calculator to run the numbers based on the stated percentage of total lease value outlined in the paragraph. Illustrative example: A 4% commission on a 5-year lease for 2,000 square feet at $32 per square foot annually adds up to $12,800 in total commission owed, split per the terms laid out earlier in the paragraph. Follow these steps to avoid math errors when calculating your obligation:
- Multiply the annual per-square-foot rate by the total square footage of the space to get your annual base rent.
- Multiply that annual base rent number by the total number of years in your initial lease term, excluding any option periods you have not formally committed to.
- Multiply that total lease value by the commission percentage stated in the paragraph to get the gross total commission owed to all named parties.
- Split that gross total per the payment split terms in the paragraph to isolate the exact amount you are responsible for paying, if any.
Many people make the mistake of only calculating the annual commission cost instead of the total for the full lease term, leading to sticker shock when they receive a single invoice for the full amount due shortly after the trigger event. You make a note of the total amount you owe in the margin of the lease next to the paragraph, so you can reference it later when you are building your annual operating budget for the space. You double-check each line of your math to make sure you did not accidentally include free rent periods or tenant improvement allowances in your total lease value calculation, as those are almost always excluded from commission calculations unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Confirm the payment trigger aligns with your move-in timeline
You look for the exact event that triggers the commission payment, so you know when to expect an invoice and when funds need to be available. Common triggers include lease signing, your first day of occupancy, or the end of any free rent abatement period, and you only agree to a trigger that lines up with when you have access to the space and your operating budget for the space goes into effect. If the paragraph lists a trigger that falls before you even get keys to the space, you flag that line for revision before you sign, because you do not want to be on the hook for payment before you can use the space you are leasing. You also check for any language that requires you to pay the full commission even if the landlord fails to deliver the space in the agreed-upon condition, or if the lease is terminated before you move in for reasons outside your control. Those clauses are not standard, and you flag them for removal immediately, because you should never be responsible for paying for a service related to a space you never get to occupy.
Verify no hidden successor commission terms are included
You scan for any language that extends commission obligations to future lease renewals, expansions, or assignments of the lease to another party, even if you work with a different broker for those later transactions. Many standard commission paragraphs add these terms by default, even if you never discussed them with your broker during initial negotiations, so you cross out any clauses that apply to terms outside your initial agreed-upon lease period unless you explicitly want them to apply. For example, if you plan to expand your space into an adjacent unit in three years, you do not want to be forced to pay commission to your original broker for that expansion if you work with a different broker for that transaction, or if you negotiate the expansion directly with the landlord. You also check for language that makes you responsible for paying the broker’s commission if the landlord defaults on the lease, which is not a standard obligation for tenants and should be removed if present. If you used Lease Jacket to flag high-risk clauses in your lease earlier, you cross-reference the notes you left on this section to make sure you did not miss any hidden terms you noted on your first pass.
Stop: this reading is done
You set your pen down and push the lease slightly away from you on the table. You do not sign this paragraph, or the rest of the lease, until you confirm every line of the commission paragraph aligns with the verbal agreement you made with your broker before you began your space search. You jot down a short list of questions to ask your broker about any terms you found unclear or mismatched, so you can get clear answers before you move forward with signing. You can take as long as you need to follow up with your broker and the landlord’s team to revise any terms that do not align with your expectations, and there is no pressure to sign the same day you are reviewing the document for the first time. Rushing through this clause to meet an arbitrary signing deadline is one of the most common avoidable mistakes tenants make when signing a commercial lease, and it can lead to thousands of dollars in unexpected costs later.
When you pull this lease back up after speaking to your broker
You sit back down at the same table, lease open to this same paragraph, and cross-reference the answers your broker gave you against the fine print in front of you. If all mismatched or unclear terms were revised to match your agreement, you initial the side of the paragraph to confirm you reviewed and agreed to its terms before you sign the full lease at the bottom of the document. If any terms still do not align with what you agreed to, you draft a short revision request to send to the landlord’s representative, with specific line edits to the commission paragraph that bring it in line with your negotiated terms. If your broker pushes back on your requested revisions, you ask for a written explanation of why the clause is written that way, and what protections it offers you as the tenant, before you agree to keep any terms you did not initially negotiate. You take as much time as you need to get this paragraph right, because a misaligned commission clause can lead to unexpected, unbudgeted costs years into your lease term that you never agreed to pay. Once all terms are aligned and you have confirmed every line matches what you agreed to, you can sign with confidence, knowing you will not face unexpected commission bills during your lease term that you did not plan for.