Landlord - Tenant Law

Landlord - Tenant Law

Landlord-Tenant Attorney Services

The business lawyers at Williams Law, P.C. regularly assist with commercial and residential lease drafting and handling of landlord-tenant disputes, both in the commercial and residential context.We represent both landlords and tenants. We urge you to call us for a free telephone consultation regarding your leasing or landlord-tenant needs.

Our Business Lawyers Assist Landlords and Tenants in matters such as:

Landlord-tenant disputes can badly disrupt the operations of a business. Outages of power, condemnation, loss of use, loss of parking, reconfiguration of neighboring structures, all can damage a tenant's business. The business lawyers at Williams Law, PC are familiar with these situations and are ready to assist you with your landlord tenant or lease issue. We also draft and litigate party wall agreements, and resolve disputes through negotiations and mediation when advantageous.

The Standard Lease is a Myth: Negotiate Everything

There is no such thing as a standard lease. All leases are slightly different and the terms are subject to negotiation. You should review every small detail before signing a lease. And keep in mind, just about everything can be subject to bargaining and legal 'horse trading.' Negotiating a commercial lease is a tricky area of commercial law and should not be done without a landlord-tenant attorney. Does your lease insure you enough parking spaces and sufficient signage...on the roadside marquis?...what about above the door? Can the landlord require you to move into a different suite whenever they desire? Can they rent to your competitors? Is your common area maintenance or CAM within commercial norms or high? Are your share of taxes disproportionate? Will the utilities be on a central meter and your share unfairly high due to a 'utility hog' in the building? Then there is the question of base rent and percentage rents. Williams Law, PC provides affordable legal assistance for those considering leasing or becoming tenants.

Want To Break Your Lease? Take Note...

Breaking a lease is not easy, not even when the landlord has done something wrong. We receive dozens of calls each month from tenants wishing to break their lease, and normally the answer is "No, you can't or you'll be fully liable." Most leases give the landlord a right to cure defects or problems, and require you to give them notice of defects or breaches in writing. So even if you do have an issue, the landlord often has a great deal of time to fix it, sometimes as long as three months, before it constitutes a breach of the lease. Some leases make you agree that the property was in good shape when you moved in, so your complaints later become irrelevant. It should go without saying that you can't usually get out of a lease simply for financial reasons, i.e. you have lost a job or a big customer, or business is bad. But it is also exceptionally hard to rescind a lease based on some fundamental change which has harmed you, but which isn't the landlord's fault, such as closure of a major highway serving your area, a new building which blocks your sign's view from the street, or the closure of a big anchor tenant who brought in most of the foot traffic. If you want to be able to exit the lease for things of this nature, you had better get these terms into the lease before you sign it, or you will be out of luck. A lawyer at Williams Law can help you negotiate such terms. Call us.

Contact our offices to talk about your landlord-tenant law issues.