Feature, Drafting Tips, In the News, Plugging Loopholes, Resolving Disputes, Negotiating Tips, Q & A, Dos & Don'ts

How to Use 'Baseball Arbitration' to Resolve Renewal Rent Disputes

September 21, 2021    

Make sure your arbitration rules cover all the bases.

 

Get 12 Protections When Leasing to a Medical Tenant

August 24, 2021    

Physician practices, pathology labs, ambulatory surgery centers, clinics, and other medical providers need commercial space to lease. To obtain it, they’re willing to go not only to offices but also malls, retail outlets, and other nontraditional properties. All of this creates new...

Don't Inadvertently Give Defaulting Tenant an Option to Buy

August 24, 2021    

The last thing any landlord wants is to allow a tenant to purchase the property while it’s in default. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what you might have to do if the purchase option clause in your lease contains a common loophole.  

Specify in Lease that 'Attorney' Can Send Notices

August 3, 2021    

It's important to make your notice to a tenant valid if your attorney sends it. If a tenant violates your lease, you're probably required to notify the tenant in writing that if it doesn't cure—that is, correct—the violation by a set deadline, you can take action against...

Get 11 Lease Protections When Leasing Furnished Office Space

July 21, 2021    

During the pandemic, some of your tenants may have abandoned their office space to work from home, leaving the premises fully or partially furnished. Now that the leasing market is returning to something approaching normal, leasing these furnished offices may prove to be a windfall for your...

Compromise on Tax Hikes Resulting from Sale of Property Early in Lease

July 21, 2021    

Any time a property is sold there’s the possibility that the sale will trigger a tax assessment. And that creates the risk of a major real estate tax increase. Who pays for that increase when and if it occurs? Obviously, tenants won’t want to. They try to exclude tax increases...

Are Landlords Liable for Criminal Attacks on a Tenant’s Employees?

July 21, 2021    

One reason general liability insurance is so expensive is that landlords can be sued for money damages if an individual gets injured on their property. While there are lots of legal theories trial lawyers can rely on, the vast majority of personal injury cases against landlords involve one or...

Courts Take Dim View on Retailers' Right to Pandemic Rent Relief

June 17, 2021    

New York State has become something of a national laboratory of commercial leasing litigation testing the rights of retail and restaurant tenants that couldn’t meet their lease rental obligations due to COVID-19 shutdowns. A brand-new case brought by upscale retailer Hugo Boss is...

Set 10 Limits When Letting Franchisor Assign and Sublet Without Consent

June 17, 2021    

Waiving consent rights doesn’t necessarily require ceding all control.

 

Leasing to franchise businesses can ensure a stream of large, financially stable, and nationally recognized tenants. But it also poses unique leasing challenges. To leverage the full strength of...

Keep Guarantors on the Hook for Attorney’s Fees

June 17, 2021    

Guaranty agreements may cap how much the guarantor has to pay if the tenant defaults. For example, the agreement may say that $100,000 is the most the landlord can collect from the guarantor. If you include dollar caps in your own lease guaranties, just be sure that they exclude attorney’s...

Post-COVID Leasing: Self-Help Eviction of Tenants that Don’t Pay Rent

May 19, 2021    

Throughout the course of this pandemic, landlords have found all kinds of creative ways to support COVID-19-strapped tenants who can’t pay rent. When the history is written, it is likely to show that working together to find mutually workable solutions was, in fact, the most effective...

Don't Let Rent Abatements Reduce Future CPI-Based Rent Increases

May 19, 2021    

Granting rent concessions and abatements (which we’ll refer to collectively as “abatements”) has become standard operating procedure in these troubled times. But before you engage in the practice, check your lease for a loophole that can limit how much of a rent increase you...