If you defaulted on the mortgage loan for your office building or center because a major tenant didn’t pay its rent, leaving you short of money to make a loan payment, it seems only fair that the delinquent tenant should have to reimburse you for the loan-related damages you had to pay to...
Identify all of the documents comprising the lease in any estoppel certificate you give to a tenant to sign. Alternatively, you can attach a copy of the lease and all of those documents to the estoppel certificate as an exhibit. Then there shouldn't be any gaps when the tenant certifies that...
You can’t use any of the tenant’s trade names, trademarks, logos, and designs in your marketing materials unless you first get the tenant’s consent. Why? Because they are its “intellectual property.” And if the tenant decides to withhold its consent, or you never...
If you grant a license to kiosks and carts to conduct business at your center, make sure that you audit the books and records of a set percentage of those kiosks and carts each year to verify their gross sales. It’s not uncommon for kiosks and carts to submit gross sales statements that...
Some office building or mall owners put out “wet floor” signs during rainy or snowy weather to warn customers about slippery conditions that could quickly develop on the floors of the property. In just a few minutes, water can collect, creating a hazard. It’s important to be...
Making a profit from tenants at your shopping center or mall depends on many factors—one of which is the key percentage rent arrangement. Percentage rent allows you to collect not only base rent, but also a percentage of the tenant’s gross sales done at the space it leases from you....
Many commercial properties have more than one level, which will mean that there is at least one set of stairs. You may be wondering if you could include the stairs leading to, say, the dance studio in the square footage, and whether it’s customary, or even legal, to include stairs leading...
If you own a mixed-use building that has retail stores on the ground floor and residential units on the floors above, with the ground floor specifically zoned for retail use, be aware of additional lease considerations. Namely, you’ll need to factor in the potential for zoning changes in...
If you own a shopping center or office building and have financial difficulties, you may be dealing with one, or even several, liens filed against the property. A savvy tenant knows that if it doesn’t have priority if you become bankrupt, it could be dramatically affected, up to and...
The standard lease form that you use might require a tenant to add you to its commercial general liability (CGL) policy as an “additional named insured.” You might think that this additional named insured status gives you the same rights as the tenant under its CGL policy, and that...
Before retaining a real estate attorney for a new deal, don’t spend time and money disclosing the deal’s details to her before you are sure that no conflict of interest exists that could prevent her from fairly representing your interests. This applies whether the attorney is new to...
Owners who lease space to large national retail tenants know that their demands can be hard to resist. Use of the space is the number one concern for these tenants. Often, they ask for flexibility in their use of the space that puts owners at a disadvantage. A lease that allows a tenant to use...
