Don’t Use Colors in Exhibits if Copies To Be Made in Black & White

Don’t use colors to highlight your lease exhibits if copies of the lease will be made on a black-and-white photocopy machine, says Camilla Titterington, senior counsel of Petsmart, Inc. The colors won’t show up on black-and-white copies, leaving the people getting those copies uncertain about where the color highlights should have appeared. That uncertainty could lead to disputes between you and the tenant over the items meant to be highlighted, especially if the original lease with the color exhibits is lost.

Titterington has often seen black-and-white lease copies refer to color highlights that didn’t appear in their exhibits. This problem occurs because it’s easy to forget—or the person making the copies may not know—that the lease has exhibits with color highlighting and so shouldn’t be copied in black and white.

It’s better to highlight exhibits using designs or patterns—such as cross-hatching, diagonal lines, x’s, or circles, says Titterington. They’re easy to see in both color and black and white. But if you’re determined to highlight in color, make sure you copy the lease by using either a color photocopy machine or a color scanner if you’re saving the lease as a computer file, she says.

CLLI Sources

Camilla Titterington, Esq.: Senior Counsel, Petsmart, Inc., 19601 N. 27th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85027; (623) 587-2833; CTitterington@SSG.PETsMART.com.