I have certain clients who pass through my office who are thinking about hiring a real estate lawyer for the first time or switching lawyers for the all too familiar reasons. They, however, make it clear all they really care about is getting the cheapest price for the services. How often do you hire the [...]
There are three critical lease provisions that tenants should negotiate at the outset rather than negotiating them as part of a lease review. These provisions are the following: 1) Identifying the buildout completion date and the penalties for landlord’s failure to timely deliver. These are typically 2 days free rent for each day’s delay and [...]
I have many clients who call me at the 11th hour to request a real estate contract and tell me not to worry about any due diligence that may get in the way of their sweet deal. That is a sour response. Due diligence may seem trite and monotonous but it is essential to making [...]
I have fielded several phones calls lately with the same lament: “The lease I signed is not what the landlord promised.” I am sure you have heard the phrase “My word is my bond”, today that really means “Your contract is your bond”. Most lease boilerplate contains a clause that says the lease supersedes any [...]
I recently had this issue come across my desk: A landlord sent a Tenant a bill for two year’s worth of tax expenses does the tenant have to pay them. Unfortunately, the general answer is yes. Despite the landlord being asleep at the switch, if the tenant agreed to pay such expenses in the lease [...]
I want to remind our readers that you or your clients who lease space may soon be receiving a statement from your landlord regarding operating expenses for the 2009 calendar year. You should carefully scrutinize this statement as landlord’s are passing along all kinds of impermissible expenses onto tenants due to the current market. Arnall [...]
Georgia bank failures lead the nation and this trend will continue into 2010. These bank failures can present an opportunity for commercial real estate owners to refinance their debt at a discount. This will likely occur with the3rd party who purchased the loan pool from the FDIC. I thought I would share some insights from [...]
The fall in real estate prices across Georgia means you should review the assessment of the value your county assessor has placed on of your real estate. If you appeal your real estate taxes to the board of equalization the property assessment is frozen for the tax year in question as well as the following [...]
Subleasing is very popular during a down economy. You can find great space at a reasonable price. Subleasing, however, during this economy, can be fraught with peril. If the company from whom you are leasing defaults under its lease, the landlord has the right to terminate the master lease along with your sublease. This problem [...]
Your Tenant Improvement Allowance is at risk When a Landlord Defaults Certain commercial leases allow a tenant to build out space and be reimbursed by the landlord for such buildout. In the current economic climate, however, a landlord may be having financial difficulty or default on its mortgage and be unable to reimburse the tenant [...]
As a home buyer and/or homeowner, should you put your faith in Case-Shiller's results, or the Home Price Index. Perhaps, the answer is neither.
Just one week after reports of Existing Home Sales and New Home Sales plunging, the housing market signaled that the next few months may fare ...
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