A land lease agreement rents out land itself, not a building on it. The tenant gets the right to use a parcel for a set purpose (a contractor’s equipment yard, a food truck lot, a cell tower pad, hay ground, pasture) and pays rent to the landowner. Our free template handles both commercial and agricultural land, with the clauses that make land different: permitted use, who owns improvements, taxes, environmental care and how the lease ends.

When is a land lease the right agreement?

Use it when the tenant needs ground, not rooms. A few hypothetical examples:

  • A landscaping company rents a fenced 2-acre lot on the edge of town for $1,200 a month to park trucks and store mulch.
  • A neighbor rents 80 acres of cropland from a retired farmer at a set price per acre.
  • A small business puts a modular office on a vacant commercial lot and wants 10 years to make the investment worth it.

Each of those needs a clear answer to questions a building lease never asks. Can the tenant grade the land or pour concrete? Who owns the barn the tenant builds? What happens to the fence, the gravel, the fuel tank at the end? If the tenant is renting office or retail space inside a building, the commercial lease agreement is the better fit. If the goal is to own the land eventually, a land purchase agreement is where to start.

What goes into a land lease agreement?

Here’s what our template covers, section by section.

The land and its boundaries. Address or location, parcel number, acreage and a legal description or map attached as an exhibit. For farm ground, list the tillable acres separately if rent is per acre.

Permitted use. A checkbox for agricultural, commercial or other use, with a line to describe exactly what the tenant will do. Tight wording protects the owner; broad wording protects the tenant’s plans. Negotiate it rather than leaving it vague.

Term and renewal. A start and end date, plus optional renewal periods. A ground lease where the tenant is building something may run for many years; a farm lease might run one crop year at a time.

Rent. A flat monthly or annual amount, or rent per acre, with an optional escalation (for example a fixed percentage each year). There’s also room for a crop-share arrangement if that’s how the farm deal works.

Taxes, utilities and insurance. Who pays property taxes on the land and on improvements, who brings in utilities, and the liability insurance the tenant carries with the owner named as an additional insured.

Improvements. What the tenant can build, whether the owner must approve plans, and what happens at the end: the tenant removes them and restores the land, or they stay and become the owner’s property.

Environmental care. No dumping or storing hazardous materials beyond what the permitted use needs, compliance with environmental laws, and for farmland, reasonable conservation practices.

Access, assignment and default. When the owner can come onto the land, whether the tenant can sublease, and a notice-and-cure period before either side can end the lease for a breach.

What local rules should you check?

Zoning and permits. The land has to be zoned for the tenant’s use, and some uses need permits. If the tenant plans to fill or grade low ground, be careful: the EPA explains that Clean Water Act Section 404 requires a permit to discharge dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands, and that covers fill for development. The lease should say the tenant gets its own permits and follows them.

State farm lease rules. Some states have special notice rules for farm tenancies. Iowa State’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation explains that Iowa farm leases, oral or written, automatically renew for another year on the same terms unless either party gives written termination notice on or before September 1, with termination effective March 1. The notice has to be delivered in specific ways, such as certified mail sent before September 1. Other states do this differently. Look up your state’s rule before relying on the end date in your lease.

Writing and recording. Land leases longer than a year should be in writing. The statute of frauds generally requires contracts involving land, and contracts that can’t be performed within a year, to be in writing and signed by the party bound. On a long ground lease, a tenant may want to record a short memorandum of lease with the county so later buyers and lenders have notice of it; ask your title company or attorney whether that makes sense for your deal.

How do you fill it in and sign it?

  1. Attach a map or legal description as Exhibit A. On rural land, walk the boundaries together and agree which fences and gates are included.
  2. Write the permitted use as specifically as you can.
  3. Settle improvements before anything gets built. This is the clause people regret skipping.
  4. Fill in rent, taxes, insurance and the notice periods, matching any state rule for farm tenancies.
  5. Both parties sign, and each keeps a copy.

The lease itself can generally be signed electronically. The federal ESIGN Act says a contract can’t be denied legal effect just because it’s electronic. A memorandum of lease you plan to record is different, because county recorders set their own rules on notarization and originals; see documents you can’t sign electronically. Download it, fill in the blanks, and send it for e-signature with any tool you like. (If you want early access to SignWren, join the waitlist.)

This template and guide are general information, not legal advice. For a long-term ground lease or a lease tied to financing, talk to a real estate lawyer licensed where the land is.