Agreed in principle, then silence
The letting agent calls with good news: heads of terms are agreed for the vacant second floor. Five year lease, a rent-free period, landlord to replace the carpets and redecorate before the tenant's fit-out starts. Everyone celebrates and the terms go to solicitors.
Then it goes quiet. The tenant's solicitor raises enquiries that need answers from the building manager. The landlord's works need a contractor. The tenant's board has to approve the deal. The tenant's fit-out contractor wants access dates. Nobody on the landlord side is holding the whole list, and six weeks later the tenant's director phones to ask whether the landlord still wants the deal.
Why deals stall after the handshake
Between heads of terms and completion, a letting is a small project with legal, technical and commercial strands. Your solicitor runs the legal strand. Everything else tends to be run from the asset manager's memory.
- Heads of terms are a PDF, so the agreed terms are retyped by solicitors, accounts and the building team.
- Enquiries from the tenant's solicitor need answers from several people.
- Landlord works promised in the terms need scoping, ordering and finishing.
- Conditions such as the tenant's board approval or a licence to underlet are not tracked.
- The tenant's move-in date depends on access, services and fobs that nobody has planned.
The legal work is your solicitor's. The deal still needs someone holding all the strands, and a tool that shows them.
What a stalled deal costs
Every week between agreed terms and completion is rent-free time the landlord did not intend to give and risk that the tenant walks. Landlord works finish late and delay the tenant's fit-out. Agreed terms are keyed differently by each team, so the first demand is wrong. And a tenant whose first experience of the landlord is a slow, disorganised letting remembers it at every later negotiation.
Several lettings at once, across buildings, turn a manageable job into a constant juggle.
The deal tracker we build
- Agreed heads of terms are entered once, as structured terms: rent, term, incentives, breaks, reviews, landlord works, conditions and target dates. If the terms arrive as a PDF, AI extraction does the first pass and a person checks it.
- Each deal gets a task list from your template: solicitor instruction, enquiry replies, landlord works, conditions, access, services, insurance, fobs and signage, each with an owner and target date.
- Enquiries from the tenant's solicitor are logged and routed to the person who can answer, with the answer recorded for reuse on the next letting in that building.
- Outstanding items are chased automatically, and anything overdue appears on the asset manager's list.
- A simple shared status, without your internal notes, can be sent to the tenant and agent so they can see progress.
- On completion, the agreed terms flow into your rent schedule, lease event tracker and unit record, and the building team gets the move-in plan.
| Strand | Owner | What the tracker holds |
|---|---|---|
| Legal | Your solicitor | Instruction, drafts, enquiries, completion |
| Landlord works | Building surveyor or manager | Scope, order, progress, sign-off |
| Conditions | Asset manager | Each condition and its evidence |
| Move-in | Building manager | Access dates, fobs, services, signage |
| Billing | Accounts | Terms passed across on completion |
How lettings run once it is in place
The asset manager sees every live deal with its outstanding items, not just its legal stage. Enquiry answers are reused rather than rewritten. Landlord works are planned from day one. The tenant receives a clear picture of progress. And on completion, the terms reach billing and the lease diary without anyone retyping them, so the first demand is built from the agreed terms.
Over time the tracker also shows where deals usually wait: on a particular enquiry, on landlord works, or on the tenant's side. That is useful evidence for improving the next letting pack.
Is this where your lettings stall?
- Deals go quiet for weeks after heads of terms.
- Landlord works promised in the terms finish late.
- Solicitor enquiries take a long time to answer.
- The first demand for a new tenant is often wrong.
- Tenants chase you for progress on their letting.