Document Lacking Property Description Wasn't Enforceable Lease

A company met with a commercial property owner to discuss leasing the owner's property. The parties signed a one-page, handwritten document that included a payment schedule and liquidated damages and indemnification provisions, but didn't set the length of the agreement or describe the property. The owner sent the company a detailed lease agreement to sign, which the company refused to do. The company moved in and paid rent according to the schedule in the handwritten document. The owner accepted those payments, but then sued to evict the tenant, arguing that it was a “tenant-at-will—that is, it had the right to use the property for an indefinite period of time, but the owner or tenant could terminate that right at any time. A lower court dismissed the lawsuit, and the owner appealed.

A Georgia appeals court reinstated the lawsuit, ruling that the handwritten document wasn't an enforceable lease. The court said that to be enforceable, a lease must be in writing and describe the subject of the agreement, the parties to it, and the terms and conditions of the agreement. Here, the handwritten document didn't describe the property to be leased and, in fact, didn't even include its address, noted the court. But the appeals court sent the lawsuit back to the lower court to decide whether the owner's acceptance of the company's rent payments excused the lack of a written lease [Nacoochee Corp. v. Suwanee Investment Partners, LLC].