Control Telecom Service Provider's Use of Garage Rooftop

If you have a freestanding parking garage, make sure that if a telecom service provider (TSP) puts its antenna on the rooftop of your parking garage, you'll get paid for that use.

If you're like many owners, you may be unintentionally giving away your rights to collect fees from the TSP when you sign a management agreement with a parking garage manager. A typical management agreement gives the parking garage manager a lot of power to run the garage, since most owners don't want the hassle of doing it themselves. But, if the management agreement you sign doesn't give you control over telecom equipment installations on the garage rooftop, here's what could happen: The parking garage manager might make a deal with a TSP that's looking for rooftop space for its antenna. The TSP would pay the parking garage manager a fee for using your garage rooftop, and the parking garage manager would pocket the fee.

To keep that from happening, make sure that your management agreement with the parking garage manager bars it from letting any TSP install an antenna on your garage rooftop without first getting your consent, advises Houston attorney John S. Hollyfield. The management agreement should say that, as a condition to your consent, the TSP must sign your form of telecom license agreement.

To block the parking garage manager from bringing in a TSP without your consent, add the following language to your management agreement with it:

Model Language

Manager shall not permit any telecommunications service provider (“Provider”) to install any wires, antenna, or other equipment in the interior or on the exterior of the Garage (including, without limitation, the rooftop) without Landlord's prior written consent. As a condition to Landlord's consent, Provider must execute Landlord's then-standard form of telecommunications license or lease agreement, or if such agreement is unavailable, a telecommunications license or lease agreement in a form acceptable to Landlord, in its sole discretion.

Insider Source

John S. Hollyfield, Esq.: Of Counsel, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, 1301 McKinney, Ste. 5100, Houston, TX 77010-3095; (713) 651-5151.