It’s such a common sight to see blood on the floor during lease negotiations between commercial tenants and landlords.

Relationships are often tense, and can remain so throughout the period of a lease agreement. Both parties can be caught up in an ongoing battle. It is almost as if we automatically expect relationships between landlords and tenants to always be fractious.

I recently ran a workshop called “It’s Your Choice! A Heaven-Made Marriage or a Shotgun Wedding.”

I took a look at both points of view; the landlord’s and the tenant’s.

Often the two parties go to war at every critical date during a lease. There are constant complaints from tenants about buildings and their facilities. The ’shotgun’ relationship often ends with an early departure from the building or the tenant not renewing their lease. Really, a lose-lose outcome.

A ‘heaven-made marriage’ can be achieved where both parties stick to the lease terms, because the terms do actually suit them both, disagreements are controlled and are fewer, flexibility is possible, and renewals and rent reviews are less difficult. Potentially a win-win outcome.

Taking the time to look at the other party’s needs and finding common ground goes an extremely long way. Time and again, I have seen tenant and landlord take up entrenched positions, almost from a point of pride rather than logic, when a simple negotiation, flexibility, and seeing the other’s needs could have financially benefited both parties!

After all, sustaining a lease over the longer term is always going to suit both parties. The landlord has a reliable income over time, (especially attractive to banks and financiers these days), and the tenant in a secure and well managed building is going to save themselves moving costs and all the associated expenses of moving on before they need to.

I’m keen to hear about your experience. Please take 60 seconds to email or leave a comment below (anonymously if you prefer) and let me know whether you are in a “Shotgun Wedding” lease arrangement or a “Marriage Made in Heaven”. I would like to gauge how our readers perceive the relationship between you and your landlord (or between you and your tenants for those landlords who read this blog), and your feedback would be most appreciated.

This entry was posted on Tuesday 2nd September 2008 and is filed under Property Leasing. Both comments and pings are currently closed.