A Shortcut To Drafting A Sublease That Might Be The Long Way To Get The Job Done

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A sublease is really no different than a lease other than its title and the use of different labels (subtenant instead of tenant; sublandlord instead of landlord; sublease instead of lease; etc.). It needs to convey an interest in real property and it needs to establish the contractual relationship between the subtenant and its sublandlord. One might think it to be “special” because it is constrained by a superior lease (master lease; overlease; etc.), but that’s not any different than a lease being constrained by a superior mortgage, a restrictive easement agreement, zoning laws, etc. In each case, the grantor (landlord or sublandlord) can’t give greater possessory rights than it, itself, has and can’t give any contractual rights that it has agreed (say in a mortgage) it won’t give or that the law won’t allow. Neither can a sublandlord.

But, there is an approach that crafters of subleases often use that is not available to crafters of leases. That’s by using an “incorporation by reference” form of sublease. [That’s not to say leases never incorporate parts of other documents by reference to those documents, references to laws being one example. And, its also not to say that there couldn’t be a publication with “standard lease terms” that might be incorporated by reference, as is done when requiring one party or the other to abide by ASTM, ASHRE or similar standards, just that, if that is being done out there, it’s a rare occurrence.] [Read more…]

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What Should A Landlord’s Consent To A Sublease Say Beyond: “I Consent?”

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What concerns would a landlord have with its tenant entering into an otherwise acceptable sublease? It isn’t our intention to hypothesize about a landlord’s legitimate concerns about the transaction itself, but only over its details. For today’s posting, we’re assuming that the landlord is consenting to the sublease, but is that the end of the story? We think not.

Fundamentally, absent some agreement between a property-owning landlord and its own tenant’s subtenant, there is no privity of contract between the landlord and the subtenant. Basically, the landlord can’t sue the subtenant for breach of the Master Lease or for breach of the Sublease. They are not parties to the same agreement. [Read more…]

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