If you use a standard lease form that includes blanks for listing appropriate information, don’t leave any of the blanks empty. If you do and end up in a dispute with a tenant, you open the door to the court’s interpreting the meaning of the blank space using “parol” or...
On June 20, Commercial Lease Law Insider received the Gold Award for Best Newsletter from the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE). A panel of expert judges from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University selected the award winners announced at NAREE...
About every 30 seconds, somebody commits a violent crime in the U.S., according to the FBI. Crimes occur in stores, malls, office buildings, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, theaters, medical centers, parking garages, and countless other kinds of properties that are commercially leased. And when...
Percentage rent leases commonly permit tenants to deduct or exclude certain kinds of transactions that don’t generate a profit for the tenant from the gross sales on which percentage rent is due. Typical examples include revenues from gift wrapping, deliveries, repairs to items purchased...
One of the most important aspects of any commercial lease is how it apportions responsibility for maintenance and repair of the leased premises, including the roof. Although there’s an infinite number of possible arrangements, tenants are generally expected to contribute to the costs of...
Just about every lease includes a provision specifying the methods landlords and tenants must use to provide notice to each other. Deviations from notice requirements are a common source of litigation, especially when notice is required to exercise a purchase, renewal, or other lease option. We...
Even in this digital age where information abounds, calculating Consumer Price Index (CPI) rent escalations remains a challenge, and Insider commonly receives requests from users struggling with the issue. There’s a lot at stake. If your CPI calculations aren’t accurate, you...
If a tenant exercises a renewal option without following all the procedures or requirements set out in the renewal clause, object right away. Failure to speak now may mean that you’ll forever have to hold your peace. That’s because a court might determine that in keeping silent you...
Don’t rely on “implied” covenants that aren’t expressly stated in the lease if you want retail tenants to continuously operate from their space. There’s a possibility that a court will find that such a covenant exists in limited circumstances, such as when the lease...
Redevelopment work is messy, noisy, and disruptive. And the results it produces may not be appealing to all tenants, especially to the extent it makes the shopping center substantially different and less favorable than the one the tenant thought it was committing to. For example, a tenant...
