Know what your lease may require you to restore, remove or reinstate

A common issue is that the clause sounds simple until the tenancy is ending and the parties disagree about what condition the premises must be returned in. The wording may refer to reinstatement, removal of fit-out, repairs, redecoration or returning the site to an earlier state, but the detail is not always straightforward. Cost can also turn on what changes were approved, what the premises looked like at the start, and whether later correspondence changed the position. That is why a clause-by-clause review can be valuable before you commit to works or respond to a demand.

This service is often useful for tenants approaching the end of a lease, tenants planning an assignment or exit, and landlords wanting a clearer legal view of the clause before taking a position. It can also help where there has been a fit-out, signage, alterations, landlord approvals or a long occupancy period that makes the original condition harder to pin down. If the issue is no longer just interpretive and has moved into an active dispute, broader representation may be needed in addition to this one-off advice service.

The advice usually covers what the make good clause says, how it may operate on the facts you provide, what documents matter, and where the main commercial risk points sit. We can also comment on connected lease issues if they affect the make good position, such as consent for alterations, assignment arrangements, occupancy changes or end-of-term obligations. The output is legal advice on your position and options. It is not a building assessment, project management service or supervision of reinstatement works.

Please send the lease, any deed or variation, fit-out or consent documents, photos or condition reports if available, and any recent correspondence about reinstatement or end-of-lease works. Those documents often matter because make good questions rarely turn on the clause alone. They can depend on what was approved, what was installed, and what the parties said over time. If some records are missing, we can still review what you have and explain where evidentiary gaps may affect the strength of your position.

Not as part of the fixed-fee on this page. This service is for a one-off legal review, consultation and written advice on your make good position. It helps you understand the clause, the surrounding documents and the practical options available. If you want a lawyer to correspond with the landlord, negotiate terms, or assist on an ongoing basis, that is usually separate work. It also has separately quoted extras unless that is expressly added later.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Make Good Advice Pack service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.