Set Three Requirements to Avoid Incomplete or Sloppy Signage Removal
When a lease ends, you'll want the tenant to completely remove any interior and exterior signage it has at its space. But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes the tenant fails to remove some or all of its signage, leaving the job for you. Other times, it removes the signage but leaves behind a mess—such as dangling electrical wires—that's not only dangerous but unsightly.
But if your lease is like many we've seen, it may not give you the power to prevent the tenant's incomplete or sloppy removal of signage. That's because the lease has this loophole: It doesn't set out specific signage removal requirements for the tenant. The result: You're stuck with the cost of removing the tenant's signage or cleaning up the mess the tenant left behind.
Specify Signage Removal and Restoration Work
To plug this loophole, add the following three signage removal requirements to your lease, advises New York City attorney A. Barry Levine:
Tenant must restore space to condition before signage installation. Require the tenant to restore the space to the condition it was in before the tenant installed the signage, says Levine. That is, the tenant must completely remove all of its interior and exterior signage (and all related installations) at the space, he says. The tenant must also take down any panels and electrical hook-ups that it had installed along with its signage. This way, no electrical wires will be left exposed and become a fire threat.
Signage must be removed quickly after lease ends. Require the tenant to remove all of its interior and exterior signage soon—say, within 30 days—after the lease ends, says Levine. You shouldn't have to wait a long time for the tenant to begin or complete its removal work.
Tenant must reimburse your costs. Get the right to perform the signage removal and restoration work if the tenant fails to perform that work, says Levine. This way, you can ensure that the work will get done—and in the way you want it done. But require the tenant to pay all of your removal and restoration costs, so that you're not stuck with them, he says. And to avoid having the tenant drag its feet in paying these costs, require payment within a set number of days after the tenant gets your invoice, he says.
Add Lease Language
To get these three signage removal requirements, here's language suggested by Levine. You can adapt it and, with your attorney's approval, add it to your lease where it discusses the tenant's signage: CLLI0070
Model Lease Language
a. Within [insert #, e.g., 30] days after the expiration or sooner termination of the term of this Lease, Tenant shall remove all of its interior and exterior signage existing at the Premises. Interior and exterior signage and all installations appurtenant thereto, including panels and electrical hook-ups, shall be removed and the Premises restored to its condition before the installation of such signage.
b. In the event Tenant shall have failed or refused to remove any such signage, and to restore the Premises as required by Paragraph a hereof, Landlord, without any further notice to Tenant, may remove and restore at Tenant's sole cost and expense. Tenant shall pay such removal and restoration costs within [insert #] days after receipt of Landlord's invoice therefor.
Practical Pointer: Make sure that elsewhere the lease says that any obligations the tenant must perform after the lease ends will survive the end of the lease, Levine advises. Otherwise, you may have trouble getting the tenant to pay any removal and restoration costs you incur after the lease ends. The tenant can argue that it has no further obligations to you once the lease ends, notes Levine. But if the lease says that the obligations survive the end of the lease, the tenant remains legally on the hook for your costs, he says.
Further reading: CLLI, Aug. 2004, p.1, “Keep Control over Tenant's Sign on Shopping Center's Pylon.”
CLLI Source
A. Barry Levine, Esq.: 320 E. 23rd St., New York, NY 10010; (212) 477-5118; blevine2@nyc.rr.com.