Put Limits on Early Access by Tenant

If you've signed a lease with a new tenant that wants to get access to its space in your shopping center or office building before the lease terms starts, it could seem harmless enough. But allowing a tenant  to do work in the space or install furniture and fixtures could create more problems than you anticipate, including the inherent conflict that results if both you and the tenant each attempts to complete renovation work at the same time and in the same place.

If you agree to early entry by the tenant and the timing and scope of such entry is acceptable to you, you should negotiate an early access clause that covers among other items the following points:

• Cooperation with the landlord;
• Costs;
• Tenant delay;
• Damage to the landlord’s work;
• Maintenance and repair; and
• Indemnification and insurance.

To learn how to draft a favorable early access clause so the tenant's early access doesn't cause harm and for a model of this type of lease provision that you can adapt, see "Early Access by Tenant: More Complicated Than You Think," available to subscribers here.