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: An insurance company tenant that had leased office space in the same building for nearly 15 years wanted out when a new owner acquired the property. In May 2019, the parties agreed to modify the lease duration to end on June 30, 2020, one year before the lease...
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: A strip mall tenant made extensive improvements to convert what had been a used clothing store into a grocery store. Over time, relations with the landlord soured. Convinced that he was paying too much for rent and CAM, the tenant decided to vacate and move to a...
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: With the shopping center almost entirely vacant, the landlord didn’t care all that much that a bridge club tenant was letting its customers park in the front and rear lots. But as new tenants began moving in, demand for parking space increased and the...
What Happened: An office lease required a home health agency tenant to obtain fire insurance on the “Premises.” The tenant got insurance for its property but not the building. The building burned down, and the landlord sued the tenant for damages. The court tossed...
What Happened: A diesel-fuel vehicle repair business leased a building for use solely as an “equipment service and prep facility for fire trucks and other vehicles.” The problems began when the landlord’s manager discovered significant cracks in the building...
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...
