Question I am in the process of selling a commercial property.The buyer is one of the two tenants.The other tenant has a five year lease .the lease contains a clause which states that the Landlord can terminate the lease on sale of the building.Is this something I can do and not have legal problems.I would give the tenant one month's notice but this is not specified.
Answer Jay
few caveats first;
Laws very from province to province -- I see you are in Canada and I'm only speaking to my knowledge of commercial leasing in Ontario.
2nd a good lawyer can make the guilty look innocent or innocent look guilty -- there is no black and white answer in law.
I would certainly try to do it without a lawyer in this case because the tenant with the lease might not contest it.
2nd, if you ask a lawyer, they will CERTAINLY tell you its not so simple, and start to build a case.
Personally, I have never found a "good lawyer". Either they don't know what they are talking about and that cost you money, or they are very knowledgeable, but also know how to rake the client over the coals.
... they know each other and they talk - they "test" clients between the defence and and prosecution sides to see how long they can milk the clients for.
I know lawyers that have admitted to me, "its not whether they win or loose, its how much they got paid".
... if you go to a heart specialist, they are not going to tell you, its your stomach. If you go to a psychologist, they are not going to tell you its your kidneys. If you go to a GM dealer, they certainly are not going to tell you to go to Chrysler. You get the theme here?
Does the lease specify how much notice you have to give them? On a 5 year deal I would think 6 months would be normal. If there ISENT anything specified, you could try for one month.... a defence attorney would argue that its not enough based on a 5 year deal.
other factors would include, how long have they got left on their lease?
another thing you didn't mention.... some people call apartments "commercial". Banks look at 4 or more units as commercial and hit them with commercial mortgages (3 and under, you can usually get away with residential mortgage at a lesser rate)
IF its an apartment building (which I doubt because rarely does a residential tenant take a 5 year lease.) then you would have landlord tenant act to deal with as well - but I'm basing my answer on commercial tenants.
If you have such a clause in a commercial lease, I would be surprised to see that it does not specify "6 month notice in writing".
If it clearly DOES NOT specify a time period for notice, then sure you can give him 30 days.
Most of my work is leasing (in Ontario) -- I would never put a tenant of mine into such a position where they are stuck into a 5 year term but the landlord can terminate them... especially without a note period defined.
I mean, whats the sense of having a 5 year commitment, if the landlord can boot you out on say, 30 days?
I don't know what kind of business it is, but people spend time and money establishing a business, only be terminated because of such clause? Obviously someone was not well informed.
Without a time period noted, the only defence the commercial tenant would have, is for them, of their lawyer to argue that 30 days is not enough based on a 5 year commitment. A judge might appoint 6 months in this case.
Does the lease say anything about an option to renew?
Of course, this is all hypothetical, as I am only going by the information you provided me in the question.
Who knows? maybe their business is COSTING them money and they might look at the termination as a blessing.
