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...
Owner Wins

Oral Promise of an Exclusive Not Reflected in Lease

June 17, 2020    
What Happened: “We would have never signed the lease without the landlord’s promise to evict the existing chiropractor tenant and make us the lone and exclusive chiropractic clinic in the shopping center,” claimed the tenant. The landlord denied making any such promise and...
Feature

Dealing with Nonpaying Tenants During Pandemic: The Current State of Eviction Suspensions

May 19, 2020    
How do eviction suspensions impact your legal rights with regard to a tenant in default?  
Related Tools: Lawscape: States Currently Banning Commercial Evictions
Negotiating Tips

Leverage Guarantor's Personal Liability to Get Tenants to Pay Rent Arrears

May 19, 2020    
The months of April and May were a nightmare for rent collections. Things may not improve dramatically in June, July, or August. And with evictions temporarily barred in so many jurisdictions, landlords may feel they have no choice but to put up with tenant defaults and negotiate the best possible...
Related Tools: Remind Guarantor of Personal Liability to Get Tenant to Pay Arrears
Pop Quiz

Must Landlord Pay for IAQ Improvements Required for Tenant’s Proposed Use?

May 19, 2020    
SITUATION: Just before the pandemic hit, a landlord agreed to lease one floor and the basement of a three-story building previously used for warehousing to a lumber and leather goods store. Although the landlord had to shutter the property temporarily, the deal remained on track. Now the landlord...
Owner Loses

Landlord Must Pay $19.5K for Harassing Tenant

May 19, 2020    
What Happened: While laws banning landlords from harassing tenants are common in residential settings, New York is one of the few states that extends this protection to commercial tenants. A small landscaping business owner claimed that her landlord crossed the line by filing three different...
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