Expert: Mike Fortunato - 10/30/2008

Question
Question if someone has a lease and has been paying amount indicated in lease then about a year later the landlord says that the sq footage amount was calculated wrong and that tenant owes addtional money , can this be reason to void lease? or demand payment from tenant for such amount. It clearly states in lease total amount tenant is responsible for.

Answer
A lot depends on the language of the lease. If the rent is listed as a flat amount, then the landlord probably can not go back and try to collect any more than that. But if the rent is listed as an amount per square foot, then that may be different. Also, most commercial leases will list the square footage, and use the terms "approximately" or "more or less", indicating that the size of the premises isn't meant to be an exact measurement. These are some general thoughts, but again, a review of the lease would be necessary to know for sure, and that probably should be done by a real estate attorney.