Owner Loses
September 26, 2024
What Happened: A pedestrian sues the store owner and landlord for negligence after tripping over allegedly defective cellar doors located on the sidewalk in front of the premises. The landlord asks to be let out of the suit under state laws relieving out-of-possession landlords who have no duty to...
Feature
August 27, 2024
Offering any tenant rent relief is inherently risky.
Like so many landlords these days, you may be considering restructuring your lease to aid a percentage rent tenant that’s struggling to stay afloat. While avoiding a vacancy by helping the tenant stay in business is clearly in...
Traps to Avoid
August 27, 2024
It’s neither contradictory nor uncommon to lease space to a tenant in “as-is” condition while also promising to maintain some or all of that space, such as the roof or parking lot, until the transfer is complete. You just need to be careful about how you word the obligation.
Owner Loses
August 27, 2024
What Happened: A high-end restaurant operator leased property on Holyoke Street in Harvard Square knowing that the university/landlord was planning to undertake a major, four-year construction project spanning an entire city block across the street. The blasting work began two months later. A few...
Owner Loses
August 27, 2024
What Happened: A landlord took a cosmetology school tenant and its guarantors to court for failing to pay rent in 2020 while government COVID-19 shutdown orders were in effect. The defendants raised the usual affirmative defenses including force majeure and frustration of purpose. And, as usual,...
