We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
An attorneys' fees clause in a commercial real estate lease defines who will pay the legal fees for a dispute between the tenant and owner. It is critical to draft an attorneys' fees clause in your retail or office building lease that makes the tenant responsible for any legal fees arising from its potential default and relieves you from paying for the cost of a lawyer to help you resolve your own issues with it that may arise.
Although an owner should rightfully consider its building to be its own, once it signs a lease with a tenant, that tenant has a right to exclusive possession of its space. To ensure that an owner has access to the space after it has given up these possessory rights, the owner should add a provision covering who has what access rights to the leased space.
Most commercial property leases don't contain a provision specifying whether a copy or an electronic signature on the document is as valid as an original signature. In the absence of such a clause, the presumption is that only the original signature of the owner or tenant is binding. But more often than not, commercial property owners and tenants close transactions electronically via PDF or email, which currently predominate, or fax, which already is outdated, says ...
When looking to cut costs, one of the first things that tenants try to trim are their operating costs. If a tenant believes that it has overpaid for its share of the building's operating expenses, a lease audit is inevitable for you. Your first step in preparing for audits should be at the lease negotiations stage. Insist on lease provisions that limit your tenant's right to inspect your books and records so that the tenant doesn't have free reign over the p...
The sluggish commercial real estate industry is affecting both owners trying to keep up with mortgage payments and tenants who are in serious financial trouble—or even in risk of default. In this recession, it is more important than ever to spot struggling tenants in your shopping center or office building early on. Effectively dealing with a troubled tenant so that its financial problem won't hurt you doesn't have to be difficult. Follow our steps to pain...
Over the course of the past 15 years, wireless communication has changed from a novelty to a necessity for everyday life. The rapid growth has given rise to the need for wireless carriers to install and operate a greater number of cell tower sites in greater concentrations and over larger expanses of area. If you are approached by a wireless carrier about leasing part of your property—most likely, your rooftop—to be used as a cell tower site, make sure you t...
There are unique considerations in leasing space to a physician or medical group that don't come into play with standard office leasing. You should address those issues specifically in your lease to avoid unnecessary ambiguities.
When negotiating a lease with a prospective tenant that plans to operate a restaurant it considers to be a “grill shop,” the tenant may demand that you agree not to rent space in your center to another grill shop. But if you agree to such a restriction, you may be unable to rent space to more potential tenants than you realize. And, because the term grill shop is vague, you may end up in a dispute with your tenant over what type of tenant the restriction pre...
If you're like most owners, you're searching for new leasing strategies to increase your rent revenues. Here's one to consider if you're negotiating a percentage rent lease with a retail tenant that doesn't have a lot of negotiating power, suggests Florida attorney Oscar R. Rivera: Have the lease say that if the tenant pays percentage rent in a given lease year, in the following year it must pay a new annual minimum rent that includes that percentage...
On Oct. 3, 2008, President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 into law. This so-called bailout package is considered a necessary evil to move our economy in the right direction, but experts warn that it's far from a quick fix and expect the turnaround to be a slow and painful process. As a result, you'll probably see a significant rise in vacancy rates and more hesitation on the part of prospective tenants that had previously been looki...
RSS