Last week, though it might not have been clear (which would be entirely our fault), we were suggesting that the lease negotiating process would be quicker and more effective if the parties started with a form a lot closer to the finish line than has become the custom. We were surprised by how much support we received for our suggestion that the “default” approach in a lease should not call for a landlord’s approval of every detail of a tenant’s fit-up or other alteration work. Certainly, there were detractors, but we thought there would only be detractors. That turned out to be far from the case.

This got us to thinking about some other common clauses that seem to be more suited for inclusion in The Dance of the Seven Sisters (An Iroquois tale adapted by Amy Friedman). Today, our thoughts turn to the default clauses in the typical lease. [Read more…]