Challenge: A franchisee/tenant signed a commercial lease that included specific
landlord improvements that must be performed before the landlord delivered possession
of the space to the tenant. The tenant would not perform the tenant’s initial build-out of
the space until after the landlord’s improvements were completed. The
franchisee/tenant notified Holden Law that the landlord attempted to deliver the space
with the landlord’s buildout incomplete; the landlord also informed the tenant that the
rent commencement date would be 180 days from the incomplete delivery.
Holden Law Solution: Yvonne Holden, Esq., stepped in and carefully reviewed the
lease terms outlining the landlord’s work for the initial build-out of the premises, the
required conditions to be met in the premises upon delivery of possession, and the
calculation for the rent commencement date. She reached out to the landlord’s attorney
to emphasize the lease terms and note that delivery had not yet occurred as defined in
the lease, as the landlord had not satisfied all conditions for delivery. She also showed
that, because the conditions had not been met, the clock had not started ticking on the
rent commencement date, and the landlord could not declare a future rent
commencement date at this time.
Outcome: The landlord agreed to follow the terms of the lease, completing vital items of
the landlord’s work before delivering the premises to the tenant to begin the tenant’s
build-out. The tenant was spared from having to pay rent before the tenant’s build-out of
the premises was complete and the tenant was open for business. Instead, the rent
commencement date occurred at a reasonable time as initially envisioned by the parties
in the lease agreement.
