By Harvey Haber
Refurbishing Premises
If a landlord gives a tenant an option to extend its term, the landlord should insert a condition in the lease that the tenant must refurbish its premises on the expiry of the original term. Why? Because otherwise the tenant would not be obliged to do so.
No Need to Mitigate on Abandonment
If a tenant abandons its premises and a landlord takes the position that the lease is still in full force and effect, and the landlord does not terminate the lease, is there an obligation on a landlord to mitigate (that is, lessen) its damages (that is, the landlord’s financial loss) by re-renting to a new tenant? No! Why? Because the lease has not been terminated and is still in effect.
Fill in the Blanks
A landlord should make sure that all the blanks in its lease are filled in. Why? Because mistakenly skipping one of these blanks could be costly to a landlord. If a landlord and a tenant cannot agree on what should have gone in the blank space, a landlord may be forced to let a court interpret what the landlord and the tenant meant to say, in which event a court may select the meaning favoured by a tenant, at the landlord’s expense, or worse, if it is a dollar figure that has been left blank, the court may say that the tenant has no obligation to pay it.
Harvey Haber, Q.C., J.D., LSM, DSA, C. MED., C. ARB., B.A. – He is senior partner at Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber LLP in Toronto. He specializes in Retail, Office & Industrial Leasing, Mediation and Arbitration and can be reached at haber@gsnh.com or by phone 416-597-3392.
