Murray Brown has blogged a few times about representing a Landlord on the residential side of things and he certainly has some interesting cases, however, being a residential Landlord is not the only type of Landlord. What about being a Commercial Landlord?
Owning any type of investment property that you rent out, whether residential or commercial, can be tricky and overwhelming. Setting yourself for success at the start of your endeavour is key.
The first steps to becoming a commercial landlord, in my mind, would be to ensure you have a good lawyer to draft of your Lease Agreement.
For commercial tenancies, the Lease Agreement should not be a short document. There are numerous items that need to be considered in this type of Lease Agreement, such as net rent, additional rent (and what falls under that), parking spaces, fixtures and chattels, yearly rent increases, who pays for utilities and taxes, what the renewal timelines are, the list goes on.
If you are Commercial Landlord and some of what I just mentioned is lost on you, you could have some serious issues. Yes, the agreement is very legalese, but a good lawyer will take the time to explain everything in plain English for you to understand each item contained in the document.
You don’t want to get stuck with a Lease Agreement which you thought had the tenant paying for utilities when the tenant thought the landlord was paying for utilities, then before you know it, there are thousands of dollars outstanding.
Before you get yourself into a sticky situation, know what you are entitled to and if you are about to become a Landlord, get a lawyer involved, it will save you a lot of trouble and money in the long run.
Christine Allan, Senior ILCO Law Clerk