What Happened: Six months after an executive recruiting agency moved into its new office, employees began experiencing rashes and congestion while at work, problems that eased as soon as they left the building. Dissatisfied with building management’s response to its...
What Happened: A medical tenant decided to remain in possession and continue paying rent after its lease expired. A few months later, Hurricane Irene blew through town and inflicted major damage, forcing the tenant to move out. The tenant sued to recover its security deposit;...
What Happened: A landlord terminated the month-to-month lease of a toy wholesaler. When the tenant refused to leave, the landlord filed a holdover lawsuit. After several failed attempts by the tenant to get the action dismissed or stayed, the case went to court, which ruled in...
What Happened: A landlord promised to install fencing around a used car lot if the tenant renewed the lease. Relying on that promise, the tenant re-upped, but the landlord didn’t install the promised fencing. So, the tenant terminated the lease, stopped paying rent, and...
What Happened: Courts around the country continue to rule against tenants seeking to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for not paying rent. One of the more creative cases involves a fitness center tenant that had to close from March through September 2020 due to shutdown...
What Happened: A lease required a medical tenant to reimburse the landlord for the costs of improvement made to the space if it terminated early. The tenant did terminate early, and the landlord billed it for $108,000 in improvement costs. The tenant refused to pay, contending...
What Happened: A shopping center lease allowed the tenant to use the premises “solely for a tobacco, cigar, and vape store,” and “for no other purpose unless approved in writing by” the landlord.
What Happened: A convenience store tenant signed a lease requiring it to carry certain insurance at its sole cost and expense during the lease term, including at least $1 million in general liability insurance, worker’s compensation insurance required by law, and plate...
What Happened: After finding it liable for lease violations, a court ordered a restaurant tenant and its guarantors to pay damages to the shopping center landlord. It also held them jointly and severally liable for the nearly $40,000 in attorneys’ fees the landlord...
What Happened: In 2019, a tenant signed a six-and-a-half-year lease on property to be used solely “for the purpose of operating a pet and cat boarding facility” and banning other uses without the landlord’s prior written consent. In operating the business, the...
What Happened: An office tenant didn’t exercise its renewal option on a lease that expired in April 2022. However, the tenant continued to pay, and the landlord continued to accept rent after the expiration date. A few months later, when the tenant ran into problems that...
What Happened: A tenant leased the ground-floor store in a building for use as “a first-class convenience shop doing business as ‘AM PM Market’.” Just over a year into the 10-year lease, the landlord’s property manager discovered that a company...
