Drafting Tips

Give Tenants a Limited Deadline to Sue You for Lease Violations

September 27, 2023    

Grudges are part of any personal or business relationships. It’s a lesson that most landlords learn when tenants bring or threaten lawsuits over old grievances in a bid to get out of their lease, stall an eviction, or otherwise increase their leverage over you in a current dispute....

Set Conditions Before Letting Tenants Pay Rent by Electronic Deposit

June 26, 2023    

Unlike so many other aspects of the commercial leasing business, methods of paying rent haven’t changed all that much over the years. The majority of tenants still mail out their monthly checks to the landlord. However, a growing number of businesses prefer to remit their rent...

Get 3 Protections When Letting New Tenant Keep Furniture Previous Tenant Abandoned

April 26, 2023    

In these hard economic times in which so many businesses are being forced to shut down, it’s not unusual for commercial tenants to vacate their leased space without warning and leave all of their personal property and furnishings behind. In addition to losing a tenancy, landlords then face...

Get 5 Key Protections When Transferring Construction Warranties to Tenants

November 29, 2022    

It’s a common scenario that’s likely to arise any time a landlord hires outside contractors to carry out substantial improvements on a tenant’s premises: The tenant requests that the landlord “transfer” any construction warranties that the tradespeople may have...

Ensure Percentage Rent Flow When Tenant Assigns or Sublets

August 29, 2022    

Percentage rent is typically based on the gross sales generated from the leased space rather than a tenant’s gross sales. So, an assignment or sublet by a tenant with strong sales to a business with weaker sales could take a significant bite out of percentage rent. You could even end up...

Lease Guaranty vs. Suretyship: What's the Difference & Why It Matters

July 20, 2022    

There are some tenants that you know will have the assets necessary to pay their rent every month. And then there are the more financially risky ones. When leasing to these businesses, it’s advisable to get a more financially stable third party to sign an agreement backing the tenant...

‘Best Efforts’ vs. ‘Commercially Reasonable Efforts’: What the Difference Is and Why It Matters

February 20, 2022    

Chances are, your standard lease form includes one or more provisions requiring the tenant to exercise some kind of “efforts” to achieve a desired but uncertain result or outcome.

Set 10 Limits When Letting Franchisor Assign and Sublet Without Consent

June 17, 2021    

Waiving consent rights doesn’t necessarily require ceding all control.

 

Leasing to franchise businesses can ensure a stream of large, financially stable, and nationally recognized tenants. But it also poses unique leasing challenges. To leverage the full strength of...

Limit Financial Risk When Granting Tenants an Operating Expense Cap

February 18, 2021    

Death and taxes aren’t the only certainties in life. So are rises in the costs of operating commercial property. That’s why landlords generally require tenants to pay their share of operating expenses. And while most tenants are willing to go along with this arrangement...

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...

Don't Make These Three Bad Assumptions When Drafting Lease

December 12, 2019    

Even before the case starts, landlords are at a distinct disadvantage when they go to court over a lease interpretation: Because the landlord drafts the lease, courts will read any ambiguity in the tenant’s favor. Regrettably, landlords all too often aggravate this disadvantage by making...

Get Right to Increase Security Deposit After Key Events

January 17, 2019    

Security deposits are essential for commercial real estate owners to protect their interests when leasing space to tenants. That’s because a security deposit can be used in a number of ways to minimize the effect when a tenant doesn’t meet its lease obligations. But a security...