Landlord Approval for Retail Fit-Outs: A Practical Guide

The sequence

Almost every centre and landlord follows a version of this order. Start it the week you sign heads of terms, not the week you want to build.

• ✓Obtain the landlord's fit-out guide and tenant handbook
• ✓Produce concept drawings and a shopfront elevation
• ✓Submit for landlord / centre approval, including M&E and fire strategy
• ✓Apply for the licence to alter
• ✓Confirm building regulations and, if the shopfront or signage changes, planning or advertisement consent
• ✓Book contractor inductions, access, and out-of-hours working

How long it really takes

As a planning assumption: allow two to six weeks for landlord approval on a straightforward unit, longer where a managed centre reviews shopfronts through a design panel. Licence to alter is a legal document and moves at solicitor speed, build in four to eight weeks.

Advertisement consent for external signage is a separate application from planning, and it is the one most often forgotten.

What gets rejected

Rejections are rarely about taste. They are about compliance with the centre's technical standards.

• ✓Shopfront zone lines, projections and glazing lines that break the centre specification
• ✓Illuminated signage exceeding permitted lux or projecting into the mall
• ✓Flooring junctions and thresholds at the lease line
• ✓Fire strategy and sprinkler alterations not shown in the drawings
• ✓Missing structural sign-off for suspended elements

How we handle it

We produce the drawing packs in the format the centre expects, deal with the centre management team directly, and keep the manufacturing programme moving on the elements that approval will not change. That parallel running is usually where the weeks are recovered.