Is a commercial lease transferable to the new owner (landlord) of property?
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at
11:14 am
I purchased a commercial building in the state of Wisconsin a couple years ago. I have a tenant who has given me 30 days notice stating that their lease is not valid since I did not transfer lease to me and have lease redrafted/signed, etc. Before I go and waste money on attorney, I figured I would check here for responses. Lease terminates 6/30/09 buy prescription drugs and renews annually – tenant gave notice for 1/2/09
tenant has leased a new space and states that they do not have to honor lease terms.
From a legal standpoint, I cannot answer your question. However, if it’s been a couple years already without any problem, it seems possible that this tenant may be having other issues (not related to their lease). In other words, are they possibly going out of business anyway? Maybe filing bankruptcy? These are things to consider if you’re considering hiring an attorney, since you may spend considerable money with little chance of recovery. Just a thought.
Look through your contract on the purchase to see if the seller assigned their interest in the lease to you. If so, just show that to the tenant and tell them to keep on paying.
I am a Wisconsin landlord and a retired broker. He can not break the lease. You can not stop him from moving. You are now obligated to find a new tenant to mitigate his damages. If you do not find such a tenant you may start collection procedures against him. By the way,if you have other vacant space, you may rent that first.