If you set a Jan. 1 start date for a lease, make sure you get the year right when you give the date that the lease will end, warns Toronto attorney Harvey M. Haber. It's easy to mistakenly add an extra year to this date, he explains. Haber has seen many owners unwittingly make this kind of mistake in their leases.

For example, suppose a lease begins on Jan. 1, 2005, and will run for 10 years. Some owners might mistakenly set the end date as Dec. 31, 2015, since 2005 + 10 equals 2015, says Haber. But that's 11 years, notes Haber. The end date should be Dec. 31, 2014.

CLLI Sources

Harvey M. Haber, QC, LSM: Partner, Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber LLP, 250 Dundas St. W., Ste. 603, Toronto, ON M5T 2Z5; (416) 597-3392; haber@gsnh.com.