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What exactly are license agreements and how can they be beneficial to owners? When you sign a lease with a tenant it creates a landlord-tenant relationship that can work in your favor, but also comes with some potential problems. For example, when a tenant defaults on its lease owners usually don’t have the option of terminating the lease immediately. The owner might have to wait a certain period of time for the tenant to “cure”—that is, fix&mdas...

When a prospective tenant isn’t as financially strong or experienced as you’d like, your choices aren’t limited to either taking a substantial risk or passing on an otherwise valuable leasing opportunity. You can secure the tenant’s lease obligations by getting a guaranty for additional financial security. If the tenant is willing to provide a third-party guarantor, you’ll need to negotiate the scope of the guaranty.

If you’re like many commercial real estate owners, you’ve considered using “alternative dispute resolution” (ADR) methods, including arbitration, to resolve your differences with tenants out of court. For example, when you and a tenant are certain you disagree on a single, clear-cut issue, arbitration may be the best place to start.

By David S. Houston, Esq.

In this economy, it’s tough enough to fill your center with tenants, without inadvertently letting existing ones sublet space to businesses and restaurants that compete with your leasing efforts. For example, if you’re searching for a tenant to fill vacant restaurant space at your center, but another restaurant tenant decides to sublet its space, you’ll both be, in essence, competing for the same tenant—a restaurant that wants to lease space in y...

Generally, commercial leases require tenants to return space in the same condition as it was rented to them. There’s some leeway for “ordinary wear and tear” to the space. But there are several ways that a tenant can negatively affect you when it moves out, or “surrenders” the space, not just by damaging physical items there.

Generally, commercial property owners provide cleaning services to tenants. They typically hire and use a cleaning contractor that they choose. However, specialty tenants sometimes ask that they be allowed to hire their own, separate cleaning contractor. Tenants that have confidential information, such as banks and medical offices, and are concerned that a cleaning crew will have access to it, or tenants that have especially expensive merchandise, like jewelry stores, a...

Owners often give tenants a “free rent” concession—that is, a portion of the term of a lease when no rent is required—to entice them to lease space. For example, in order to attract tenants to your new office building, you might offer a three-month rent-free period to those who sign a five-year lease. Free rent is a very common concession, especially during lease negotiations for space at a shopping center or office building that has a high vacan...

Many important events and options for you and your commercial tenant are measured from your lease’s commencement date. The commencement date controls critical information, such as when the lease will expire, when rent starts, and when the tenant’s special options must be exercised.

An exclusive use clause is a highly valuable clause in a tenant’s lease because it will grant the tenant the sole right to sell certain products or operate a certain type of business in the shopping center where it rents space.