At the risk of sound a bit like a human rights activist, I thought it important to say a word about ensuring your rights as a commercial tenant are always honoured.

In these tough times, we can all get a little bit desperate and think about cutting corners from time to time. And landlords and property developers are no different.

Likewise, it is easy when our focus is on basic survival and our core business to overlook ensuring our rights in tenancies are upheld.

I’ll give you a couple of examples…

I visited a client recently and noticed they had fewer car parks than before. When I asked them what was up, they said space downstairs from them had been let to a new tenant and the new tenant’s rubbish skips were obstructing several car parks.

My client said they just hadn’t got around to talking with the landlord about asserting their rights to continued access to their car park spaces. This had been going on for three months. My advice was that if it was left too long, it could end up being too late to do anything about it.

So it is important to assert your rights within a tenancy, on the spot.

Another area where boundaries can be pushed is in the area of “quiet enjoyment”, the clause in a lease agreement that gives you rights to ensure your landlord cannot, without notice, allow actions that will interrupt your ability to work peacefully in your premises.

In these hardened economic times, there could again be the temptation for a landlord to push the boundaries here; for example by making alterations to a building to oblige new tenants, in a way that might impinge on your right to “quiet enjoyment”.

It is best to get these things sorted before they end up in the hands of lawyers.

My advice is: Don’t let landlords take advantage of you. I am happy anytime to offer counsel and our services if you have any uncertainty about asserting your rights in your lease agreement.

Tags: commercial property lease, commercial tenancy rights, Lease Disputes, Quiet Enjoyment, recession property strategies, tenant & landlord negotiations

This entry was posted on Tuesday 31st March 2009 and is filed under Property Leasing. Both comments and pings are currently closed.