Error in Size Description Not a Lease Violation

August 31, 2003

A nail salon owner wrote to a center owner, expressing an interest in renting “about 800 square feet” of space in the center. The tenant and owner signed a lease in which the space was erroneously described as approximately 1,710 square feet, when the space was actually 876 square feet. A week after they signed the lease, the owner told the tenant about the error and gave it the correct size of the space. The tenant didn't object; rather, it moved into the space, opened for business, and started paying rent.

A nail salon owner wrote to a center owner, expressing an interest in renting “about 800 square feet” of space in the center. The tenant and owner signed a lease in which the space was erroneously described as approximately 1,710 square feet, when the space was actually 876 square feet. A week after they signed the lease, the owner told the tenant about the error and gave it the correct size of the space. The tenant didn't object; rather, it moved into the space, opened for business, and started paying rent. More than two years later, the tenant stopped paying rent and sued the owner for violating the lease by providing a space smaller than what was described in the lease.

A Georgia appeals court dismissed the tenant's lawsuit, ruling that the error in the lease's description of the size of the space wasn't a lease violation. The court said that the tenant “got exactly what he bargained for—a space of about 800 square feet. In addition, the tenant moved into the space with full knowledge of the error and its correction and operated its business there for more than two years without complaint, the court added [Nguyen v. Talisman Roswell, LLC].

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