When tenants go out of business landlords pay the price. One way to cushion the financial blow is to go after the tenant’s parent corporation for the unpaid rents and other revenues owed under the lease. But without an express lease guaranty, holding a corporation liable for the debts of...
Letting tenants hire contractors to perform improvements on the property they lease from you can be risky business. One of the principal dangers is that if the tenant fails to pay its contractors, they may seek to collect the debt from you—by placing a mechanic’s or construction lien...
When it comes to liability for accidents and injuries to third parties on shopping center property, the lines are pretty well established. Absent lease language to the contrary:
Historically, boilerplate force majeure clauses have excused parties from performing lease obligations made impossible by unforeseen and unpreventable events, including government actions that make performance impossible. During the pandemic, retail and restaurant tenants across the country...
The tenant’s right of quiet enjoyment lasts for as long as the lease remains in effect. If the landlord does something to interfere with that right, the tenant is entitled to vacate and stop paying rent on the grounds of constructive eviction. But what happens when the original lease...
When you set out to evict a tenant in default, delivering the actual notice may seem like a minor affair. But failing to follow the exact notice methods and deadlines set out in the lease can undermine your eviction suit. This is true even if the notice you do provide is loud and clear.
Standard commercial net leases require tenants to pay not just rent but a proportionate share of the owner’s property taxes. Of course, property taxes are apt to fluctuate over time. Accordingly, owners typically include an “escalation” or “adjustment” clause in the...
Many shopping center leases include “radius clauses” banning tenants from opening similar businesses within a certain radius of the leased location. The idea is to prevent tenants from establishing essentially identical establishments to siphon off revenues and thereby minimize gross...
There are two ways to evict a tenant: (1) “Actual eviction,” or going to court to get an eviction order, is the proper way; and (2) “constructive eviction,” or doing something so egregious to interfere with the tenant’s business that it forces the tenant to leave,...
An owner’s right to evict a tenant for not paying rent on time is a staple of any commercial lease. But like any other lease right, it can be waived. One way to do that is by formal, written agreement with the tenant. But more often than not, waiver of the right to timely rent is the...
