Given the precarious credit situation of many tenants today, it is more important than ever that a tenant's security deposit be as secure as possible and immunized from the consequences of a tenant bankruptcy. There are several techniques owners can...
Bounced rent checks are a major hassle. Your bank will charge you a fee for a bounced check, and then you will have to spend more time actually collecting the rent from the tenant. Also, by the time you redeposit the bounced check or get a new one from the tenant, the rent is way overdue.
Franchisor tenants in today's market are demanding that their leases give them ample freedom to sublet or assign to any franchisee they choose without your prior consent. Franchisors make this demand because they don't want you putting any limitations on which franchisees they can do...
Time was, commercial property owners weren't terribly concerned about which bank issued the letter of credit securing its tenant's obligations under a lease. Banks were assumed to be solvent and well capitalized.
Many tenants these days demand a tenant improvement allowance (TIA) that is substantially bigger than what you want to give. For example, you may want to give the tenant a $30-per-square-foot TIA, but the tenant demands $45 per square foot. If the tenant has good credit, you may give in and loan...
You might agree to give your retail tenant a rent concession—such as below-market minimum rent—to persuade it to sign your lease. And in return for the concession, you would expect the tenant to pay you a lot of percentage rent if its business takes off.
If you and a tenant wind up in court, it's usually to the tenant's advantage to have a jury—not a judge—decide the dispute. That's because juries are typically biased against the owner. Therefore, if your lease is like most, you've included a protective clause that...
Before signing a lease with you, a savvy prospective retail tenant may independently investigate your center's business operations, rather than relying solely on what you say about them. Therefore, the tenant should have only itself to blame if its store fails.
You may agree to give a tenant the right to use a set number of parking spaces at your building or center in return for a parking fee. But if your lease is like many we've seen, it may have a loophole that could result in a tenant paying you far less in parking fees than you expected. Here...
Your lease may make a tenant responsible for doing all interior maintenance work at its space, while you're responsible for doing all exterior maintenance work. Although you may think that distinguishing between the interior and exterior of the tenant's space is a snap, think again....
To entice a desirable tenant to sign your lease, you may be forced to give it a security deposit concession. The concession may be to forgo a deposit altogether or to have the tenant put up less money than you'd typically require in a stronger leasing market. Either way, a security deposit...
