Owner Not Required to Accept Lump Sum When Tenant Defaults

Facts: Tenants, a marketing firm and its representatives, entered into a lease granting them use of almost 3,000 square feet of commercial space. The tenants subsequently sold the business and stopped paying rent on the property. The owner notified the tenants that their nonpayment had violated the lease's terms. The tenants offered to settle for a lump sum that was less than the total amount owed under the lease, but the owner refused the offer.

The owner then sued the tenants for full payment of the rent due. The tenants also sued, claiming that the neighborhood was bad for their business, and that the owner, in refusing the settlement offer, had given up its right to enforce the lease. The court ruled in favor of the owner, and the tenants appealed.

Decision: An Ohio appeals court ruled in favor of the owner.

Reasoning: The court found that the lease between the owner and tenant was enforceable, and therefore the owner had no duty to accept anything less than full payment of the rent due under lease.

• Yoder v. Hurst, September 2007