Don't Let Lease Assignment Defeat Your Right to a Sublease Commission

SITUATION

A shopping center tenant hires a broker to find somebody to sublease 5,100 square feet of the space it’s leasing. The listing agreement names the broker as the tenant’s exclusive agent and provides for a 6 percent commission in the event:

• The space is “subleased”; or
• The tenant’s underlying lease with the shopping center is cancelled.

QUESTION

What’s wrong with this listing agreement?