Previous Owner’s Acceptance of Late Rent Doesn’t Waive New Owner’s Right to Timely Rent

What Happened: A medical tenant repeatedly paid rent late without late fees or any other penalties. But then the building was sold. And the new owner wasn’t as forgiving or tolerant of the tenant’s personal stresses and “business ups and downs” as the previous one. Within months, the tenant was staring down the barrel of a lawsuit. The trial court sided with the tenant, and the owner appealed.

Ruling: The Texas appeals court reversed and ordered the tenant to pay the owner $34,109 for breach of contract.

Reasoning: The tenant didn’t deny her habit of paying rent late but claimed that the owner had waived its rights to collect timely rent. The problem is that all the forgiveness happened under the previous regime and didn’t extend to the new owner. Not once from the date it took over did the new owner ever accept a late rent payment, noted the court.

• CHCA Woman's Hosp., L.P. v. Uwaydah, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 5843