Feature

How to Create a Lease Arbitration Clause

October 30, 2024    
Make sure your clause covers 10 key elements.     Going to court is an expensive, time-consuming, and stressful way to work out problems with your tenants. That’s why increasing numbers of landlords incorporate arbitration clauses into their leases.
Drafting Tips

Limit New Tenant's Sales of Items Subject to Existing Tenant's Restrictive Covenant

October 30, 2024    
Here’s a creative solution to “exclusive” restrictions.    
Owner Loses

Landlords Can't Challenge Constitutionality of Unenforced COVID Guaranty Nullification Law

October 30, 2024    
What Happened: At the height of the pandemic, New York City adopted a law permanently voiding personal liability guarantees of commercial lease obligations arising between March 7, 2020, and June 30, 2021, and banning landlords from taking legal action to enforce those guarantees. A group of...
Owner Loses

Landlord Must Stand Trial for Negligence to Customers that Tenant Sexually Assaulted

October 30, 2024    
What Happened: A Utah shopping center leased property for use as a massage therapy center, even though the tenant didn’t have a license to provide those services in the state. Four years later, three customers claimed that the tenant sexually assaulted them during their massage appointments...
Owner Loses

Landlord Can't Prove that Mall Tenant Failed to Maintain Food Court

October 30, 2024    
What Happened: A shopping center landlord sued to evict the tenant in charge of operating the mall’s food court for multiple lease violations, including failure to maintain the premises in a clean and orderly manner. After a three-day trial, the court concluded that the landlord failed to...
Drafting Tips

Require Tenants to Notify You of Alleged ADA Violations

September 26, 2024    
Simply requiring tenants to comply with the ADA isn’t enough.    
Pop Quiz

Does Waiver of Right to Offset Rent Also Waive Tenant’s Right to Terminate for Landlord’s Material Default?

September 26, 2024    
The right of a party to terminate a contract when the other party to the agreement commits a material breach is a fundamental principle of contract law. The black letter law: “A party’s continuing obligations under a contract are conditioned on there being no uncured material failure by...
Owner Wins

No Medical Evidence Linking Negligent HVAC Maintenance to Tenant’s Rashes

September 26, 2024    
What Happened: Six months after an executive recruiting agency moved into its new office, employees began experiencing rashes and congestion while at work, problems that eased as soon as they left the building. Dissatisfied with building management’s response to its complaints, the agency...
Owner Loses

Post-Expiration Tenancy Is Month-to-Month, Not a Holdover

September 26, 2024    
What Happened: A medical tenant remained in possession and paid the landlord normal rent after its one-year lease term expired. The landlord accepted the rent payments and didn’t demand that the tenant leave. Six months later, the property suffered flood damage. The tenant asked the landlord...