What’s in Your Commercial Lease?

COMMERCIAL LEASE DRAFTING IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA

It is essential for you, as either a landlord or a tenant, to both understand all of the terms in your lease, and to ensure that your lease properly documents the duties and obligations of each party.

Aside from dictating where, when and how to pay rent and each party’s maintenance obligations for the leased premises, a commercial lease should be drafted to incorporate all of the responsibilities and expectations both a landlord and tenant have with regard to the business the tenant is conducting, or intends to conduct, at the premises. Irrespective of the actual language in a lease, having this conversation on the front end would presumably settle a landlord’s and tenant’s expectations in a way that could avoid future litigation.

We cannot stress enough the importance of drafting intentional and specific lease language to properly allocate the risk between a landlord and its tenant in each particular commercial tenancy. Landlords and tenants should have an understanding of all terms and conditions contained in a lease, such as clauses regarding risk of loss or indemnification.  Failing to understand, and properly negotiate and draft, these terms at the time of entering into the lease can lead to very unwelcome surprises in the event that a dispute arises.  While “standard” contract provisions such as these are often given limited attention, they frequently impact the outcomes of disputes in material ways or may even serve to avoid the dispute altogether.

The real estate attorneys at Nishad Khan P.L., have years of experience in drafting and negotiating various types of commercial leases and have represented landlords and tenants in retail, industrial, warehouse and other commercial real estate matters.  Please feel free to call us to discuss your needs or to book a consultation.

This Tuesday Takeaway post was submitted by Charles Nix, Esq.