What Happened: A landlord bound by a no-compete clause with Verizon Wireless leased retail property to a vape shop for the “sole purpose of a vape, tobacco, clothing, computer repair” operation. The lease also required the tenant to refrain from competing with...
What Happened: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a landlord agreed to reduce a retail tenant’s rent from $7,147 to $3,500. Signed in November 2020, the agreement was retroactive to May 2020 to March 2021, at which time rent would revert back to the original amount....
What Happened: A nonprofit ran a multi-day music festival on recreational space it leased from the city. Two attendees who purchased tickets to the event were denied entry because they were carrying guns in violation of music festival rules banning attendees from having weapons...
What Happened: After signing a 10-year lease with a health clinic, a landlord put the property on the market for sale as “net lease investment,” meaning there was a tenant already in place. The tenant then defaulted just three years into the lease. Invoking the...
What Happened: An indoor cannabis cultivator operated under an oral lease while negotiating the terms of a written agreement. But after two years of fruitless negotiations, the landlord decided enough was enough and served the tenant a 30-day notice to quit. When the tenant...
What Happened: Operating a Bitcoin mining business requires unusually high amounts of electricity. Miffed at learning this lesson the hard way, an office building landlord threatened a Bitcoin tenant with eviction. When the electric company later shut down the tenant’s...
What Happened: A fitness center asked its landlord to refund the rent it paid during the 15 weeks that it couldn’t operate because government COVID-19 shutdown orders were in effect. The landlord refused. So, the tenant sued. Both sides moved for summary judgment—...
What Happened: As courts continue to routinely reject force majeure, impossibility, frustration of purpose, and other defenses, it’s hardly surprising that retail tenants would come up with new theories to excuse their failure to pay rent during COVID-19 shutdowns. The...
What Happened: Seven years into its 10-year lease, a restaurant decided to permanently shut down its business and surrender the premises to the shopping center landlord. The key question: Did the landlord actually accept the surrender? The landlord claimed it did no such thing...
What Happened: In January 2021, a tenant signed an offer to purchase the building with closing to occur within 45 days. But after six months of unsuccessful negotiation, the deal fell through. The landlord then sued to evict the tenant for failing to pay rent for the period...
What Happened: A restaurant exercised its renewal option but furnished notice only after the option period had expired. A month later, the landlord sold the property and notified the new owner that the restaurant’s tenancy was now month to month. The tenant sent the next...
What Happened: A landlord got agita after reading in the local newspaper that its tenant, the local Golden Corral restaurant, had closed down. Upon finding the property apparently abandoned and in very dirty condition, it changed the locks. It then sent the tenant a notice to...
