Control Tenant’s Right to Install Security Measures

The number of violent crimes taking place at public venues in recent years has skyrocketed, with the Oct. 1 mass shooting of concert-goers in Las Vegas being the biggest attack in United States history. Owners of public spaces are reevaluating their security, some by asking outside security firms to review their security systems and make recommendations for improvement.

Both tenants and their customers and employees are vulnerable if they set up shop or work at a shopping center. But what if you own a smaller center or a mall that’s struggling to turn a profit and can’t hire a large security team or install a state-of-the-art security system? Is it a good idea to allow tenants to supplement your security measures with their own, if they’ve requested to do so? Or should you turn down those offers and make the best with the team you have?

The key is to negotiate limits on a tenant’s supplemental security measures so that it makes your team’s security plan easier, not more difficult, to carry out. It can be easier than it seems to work with the tenant to protect everyone’s interests in your scenario. Two important things you need to do when negotiating with a tenant that wants to use its own security as well as yours is make sure other key lease clauses apply and require the tenant to get your approval.

Certain key clauses in the lease—such as the alterations clause and any clause governing the security you’ll provide—may limit the security measures the tenant can install and use in its space. Make sure the tenant’s right to install supplemental security measures is subject to those key clauses. Otherwise, you could lose control over what the tenant can put in its space. To make sure those key clauses and any limits they contain apply, say in the lease that the tenant’s supplemental security system clause is “subject to” the key clauses.

And requiring the tenant to get your approval before it installs any supplemental security measures helps you control the times, place, and manner of the installation.

For five more limits you should put on a tenant’s use of its own security and a model lease clause you can adapt, see “Restrict Tenant's Use of Supplemental Security Measures,” available to subscribers here.