Get Flexibility to Change Tenant's Unit Number Without Consent

If a tenant wants you to specify the number of its unit, store, or suite in the lease, then say in the lease that the tenant's unit, store, or suite is “presently known as [Unit/Store/Suite] [insert #, e.g., #4B],” says Toronto attorney Harvey M. Haber. The phrase “presently known as” will give you the flexibility to change the number of the tenant's unit, store, or suite during the lease term without having to get the tenant's consent, he explains.

If your lease merely sets out the number of a tenant's unit, store, or suite (or refers to the number indicated on the site plan) without indicating that it's “presently known as” that number, you'd be forced to formally amend the lease—with the tenant's consent—each time you wanted to change that number, warns Haber. And that could leave you boxed in if the tenant won't consent to the number change.

Bear in mind that it's not unusual for the number of a unit, store, or suite to change over time—especially if the shopping center or office building is being built, expanded, or contracted, says Haber. Although the tenant's unit, store, or suite may not change its physical location, you may need to change its number after construction is completed, he says. For example, although the initial site plan and the lease may have listed the tenant's store as Store #1B, the addition of several new stores at the center may require a renumbering to Store #1E.

Insider Source

Harvey M. Haber, Q.C., LSM: Partner, Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber LLP, Toronto, ON