Rooftop solar can cut your electricity bill dramatically, but the upfront cost of buying panels stops many homeowners. Two popular alternatives let you go solar with little or nothing down: the solar lease and the solar power purchase agreement, or PPA. They sound similar, and salespeople sometimes use the terms interchangeably, but they work differently … Read more

Corporations use leases for far more than office space and company cars. For large real estate and equipment deals, finance teams sometimes use an exotic structure called a synthetic lease, designed to deliver tax benefits of ownership while keeping the asset off the balance sheet. It is one of the more creative instruments in corporate … Read more

You have driven your leased car for three years, kept up with every payment, and now the lease is ending. You return the keys expecting a clean goodbye, and then a bill arrives for several hundred dollars. That bill is the disposition fee, and it catches many lessees by surprise. A disposition fee is a … Read more

Common area maintenance charges are one of the most misunderstood line items in a commercial lease. Every year, tenants across the United States pay their CAM bills without question, even though industry experience shows that a meaningful share of those bills contain errors that favor the landlord. A CAM audit is a systematic review of … Read more

Opening a specialty coffee shop in a shopping center, only to watch the landlord lease the space next door to a competing coffee chain, is a nightmare scenario for retail tenants. Exclusivity clauses exist to prevent exactly that. They restrict the landlord from leasing space in the same property to businesses that compete directly with … Read more

Imagine signing a ten-year lease for the perfect office suite, building it out to your specifications, then receiving a letter from your landlord: you are being moved to a different floor. Many tenants agree to relocation clauses without realizing what they have conceded. A relocation clause allows the landlord to move your business to different … Read more

Most commercial tenants assume that as long as they pay rent, they can run their business however they like. In retail leases, that assumption is often wrong. Many shopping center leases include a continuous operation clause that requires you to keep your store open during specified hours, and closing your doors can trigger serious penalties. … Read more

If you operate a retail store in a shopping center, your lease may contain a restriction you have never heard of: a radius clause. This provision limits your ability to open another location within a certain distance of your current store, and violating it can cost you a significant amount of money. Radius clauses are … Read more

When you sign a commercial lease, your landlord’s mortgage lender may ask you to sign a separate document called an SNDA. It often arrives with little explanation, buried in loan paperwork, and many tenants sign without understanding what it does. An SNDA stands for Subordination, Non-Disturbance, and Attornment agreement. It governs the relationship between you, … Read more

Signing a commercial lease in New York City almost always involves some form of personal guarantee. Landlords want a person, not just a company, standing behind the rent obligation. For tenants, that demand can feel like a deal breaker, since a full personal guarantee puts personal savings and investments on the line for the entire … Read more