Feature

How to Give Tenants Future Pandemic Rent Relief

July 24, 2020    
ADOPT SEVEN KEY PROTECTIONS IN YOUR LEASES FROM NOW ON.   As businesses reopen, landlords and tenants should be thoroughly preparing for the next public health crisis. One key question both sides will have to address in their future leases: To what, if any, kind of rent relief should a tenant...
Related Tools: Draft Fair and Balanced Pandemic Rent Abatement/Deferral Clause
Drafting Tips

Force Majeure & COVID-19: New Case Offers 4 Key Pointers

July 24, 2020    
Can a tenant who can’t operate due to a COVID-19 public health emergency order rely on the force majeure clause of its lease to forgive its obligation to pay rent? This has been perhaps the biggest question in all of commercial leasing law ever since the pandemic began. And now for the first...
Pop Quiz

Must Landlord Give Notice to Terminate Expired Fixed-Term Lease?

July 24, 2020    
A restaurant in Seattle signs a fixed-term lease containing the following clause: Lease Termination Date. The term of this Lease is 36 months and shall expire at midnight on May 31, 2019, or such earlier or later date as provided in Section 3 (the “Termination Date”). LANDLORD MAY...
Owner Wins

Tenant Doesn’t Have to Own Property to Sue Trespassers

July 24, 2020    
What Happened: Trader Joe’s sued a political organizing firm that sent agents to the parking lots of its stores to gather customers’ signatures for ballot initiatives without its permission.
Owner Loses

Court Orders Landlord to Stop Blockading Tenants’ Customer Access Roads

July 24, 2020    
What Happened: It was a long running dispute: The landlord thought the tenant owed Terminal Usage Fees; the tenant disagreed. In a civil society, there are courts to resolve these types of disputes. But instead of filing a lawsuit, the landlord took matters into its own hands by blocking the access...
Feature

Get Reopening Tenants to Use 'Contact Logging'

June 17, 2020    
It’s in your interests to ensure tenants maintain social distancing in the leased space.   As businesses reopen, landlords face the challenge of helping their tenants comply with social distancing requirements. Instrumental to that effort will be ensuring that tenants have the capability...
Related Tools: Help Tenants Ensure Social Distancing at Leased Premises
Negotiating Tips

10 Key Leasing Lessons from the First Phase of the COVID Crisis

June 17, 2020    
The COVID-19 crisis has forced landlords and tenants around the country to rework their leases. And while the process will continue for months and even years, we’ve reached the point where we can step back and consider the big-picture leasing lessons from the tumultuous months of March, April...
In the News

Lawscape: State Orders on COVID-19 Body Temperature Screening

June 17, 2020    
As businesses begin to reopen, governors and public health authorities in many states have issued orders requiring employers to perform body temperature screening of employees before the start of work shifts to prevent workplace COVID-19 infection. To determine whether you’re covered by such...
Related Tools: State Orders on COVID-19 Body Temperature Screening
Q & A

Does Tenant's Temporary Loss of Common Area Use Justify Ending the Lease?

June 17, 2020    
What are a landlord’s liability to tenants when it reopens part of the property after a disaster but still has to keep parts of the common areas closed for a while to fix the damage? That timely question is at the center of a recent case.
Owner Wins

Money Damages-Only Lease Clause Isn’t ‘Unconscionable’

June 17, 2020    
What Happened: A lease contained the following provision: “None of Landlord’s obligations under this lease shall be subject to specific performance or injunctive remedies, and Tenant waives all rights with respect to such remedies.” This clause basically means that if a tenant...
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