No lease, no premises, no practice. Remember that your lease controls how long you can practice in the premises, your rent cost, the value of your practice and your retirement fund. Therefore, your lease and its terms are critically important.
Your commercial lease is one of your biggest financial and contractual obligations and it should not be overlooked or forgotten. Depending on your current and future plans there are certain lease clauses that may have been pre-negotiated and if overlooked or any important dates are missed you could put your business in jeopardy.
The premises leasing landscape is very different from two and a half years ago. Tenants have endured repeated lockdowns, global paranoia, anxiety and depression, economic euphoria over soaring property and stock market values. They’ve also experienced e-spending with confidence fueled by ultra-low interest rates and governments pouring stimulus funds into pockets, dramatic work-at-home demographic shifts, and bewildering e-communication advances.
This article provides details concerning what every tenant must know about their lease term.
Your responsibility as a tenant is to manage your tenancy. Your landlord will not call you and offer to reduce your rent. Here are five key rent-saving opportunities every tenant should know.
Where’s the refuge from the storm? So much is unfamiliar about the pandemic that it is impossible to make sense of what is happening. At this point, the uncertainty has gone into overdrive. As a result, tenants are scrambling and disoriented.
You spend countless hours planning bank financing, personal investments, tax strategies, taking continuing education credits, learning treatment modalities, developing marketing initiatives, effecting staff recruiting, retention and training strategies, but most tenants rarely look at their premises arrangements because it’s not an immediate concern.
Our client was referred to us about opening a new clinic. The choices are endless, and it makes it hard to pin down an area that is likely to produce success. They came to us to help find the best location possible that suited their personal and professional goals while observing certain restrictions.
After an unsuccessful lease negotiation attempt was made between a dentist and landlord, the dentist reached out to us to help. We often get called to be a mediator in negotiations when they do not go right. Our dentist client had signed a lease without understanding what they needed to increase the value of the practice given they were planning to sell.
If you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it. Negotiations can be tough, especially when you are trying to secure a great deal on a great space for lease, at the right price. It comes down to a few overbearing factors but the most important is the discovery into who holds the most negotiation power between parties, and the concessions you will have make. The end goal is seeing the deal inked with signatures with two smiling parties.
Society has changed in many ways over the past few years in response to digital communication and the pandemic. Some changes are temporary, other changes are permanent. Consumer buying habits have changed with a significant shift to on-line marketing and purchasing at the expense of direct retail shopping, resulting in less physical shopping activity and less demand for retail rental premises. Companies are finding it’s unfeasible to reach previous staffing levels with reduced sales volumes and electronic commerce resulting in reduced employment opportunities.
As the country re-opens and emerges from the covid-social distancing funk, what are tenants doing? Many tenants are badly damaged by the impaired social distancing economy.
Having a physical location to operate your business is the norm in today’s business environment. Speaking from a historical perspective, it was the only way to get your services or products to the customers. 100 years ago, farmers would attend farmer’s markets, lawyers had high profile office space and dentists had clinics to see patients. Fast forward into current times and people have not changed much, however, the social climate we live in is dramatically different that 100 years ago.
Now is a great time to be thinking about your lease, location, building type as you reposition your business to move forward from the effects of COVID-19. You might not be ready to make a move just yet, but opportunities are becoming available that the pre-COVID market did not produce including lower rents and maybe a better location!
We just passed over the continental divide moving from the landlord friendly market to the tenant friendly market. This tenancy market change is the economic effect of the social distancing shutdown response to the pandemic.
Will large landlords including REITS, help their tenants with rent relief? The federal government has unveiled a new financial relief program that is designed for large landlords including Real Estate Income Trust(REITS). It is an interest-bearing loan to large businesses who have been affected by COVID 19.
As realty lease consultants with over 75 combined years of experience, we have a front row-centre view of how the pandemic is affecting leases and tenancies.
In today’s day and age, your landlord will not call you and offer to reduce your rent. Here are five key rent-saving opportunities every tenant should know.
A great location can be the cornerstone to your business, but do you know why it is so great? There is a lot of criteria that goes into what constitutes great space and every business will think about it differently. As things have changed quite drastically in recent months, its possible things have changed for your business as well and you are starting to think about how you might embrace it.
Having a hard time paying rent on your commercial space because of the COVID-19 lock-down? Is your Landlord allowing you to stave off rent payments? How are you going to pay the deferred rent back to the Landlord when the quarantine period is up? There are lots of remedies.
The saying goes “what you don’t measure, you can’t manage” Having a business plan is status quo. Everyone needs one to plan and obtain their targets and goals. One vastly overlooked aspect of a business plan is metrics. Its not just a buzzword, but your business plan laid out financially, with a set of rules about what is acceptable and what is not.
Your landlord will not call you and offer to reduce your rent. Here are five key “when and how” rent saving opportunities every tenant should be aware of. Covid – 19
On Friday, another rent relief package was announced. This package funds tenants rents through landlords. Under the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CE-CRA) program, federal and provincial governments will cover half of a small business tenants’ rent for April, May and June, while asking landlords to cover one-quarter of the cost. Tenants pay one-quarter of the rent.
The life cycle of a tenancy consists of a number of steps, each no less critical than any other. The cycle begins with site selection, and progresses through an offer to lease, to a lease, through periodic lease renewals, often to assignment, and eventually to end. This article about the Lease is the third in a series that will explore the various stages of a tenancy.
Vague language in your lease agreement increases your risk of unexpected cost increases. Here are three of the more significant ways your tenancy costs may increase without any changes to your lease document or your base rent.
Taking an alternate approach to tenancy could create access to a market where no suitable space appears to exist
The life cycle of a tenancy consists of a number of steps, each no less critical than any other. The cycle begins with site selection, and progresses through an offer to lease, to a lease, through periodic lease renewals, often to assignment, and eventually to end. This article about the Offer to Lease is the second in a series that will explore the various stages of a tenancy.
Don’t send a dental pro where a lease pro is needed. If you are not confident negotiating key leasing issues you need an advocate!
We seem to notice them only in passing without fully realizing their impact. This is precisely why they are so effective. Your sign can help keep your name and image "top-of-mind".
The life cycle of a tenancy consists of a number of steps, each no less critical than any other. The cycle begins with site selection, and progresses through an offer to lease, to a lease, through periodic lease renewals, often to assignment, and eventually to end. This article about Site Selection is the first in a series that will explore the various stages of a tenancy.
Several remarkable changes have permanently impacted the tenant’s ability to manage its location. The commercial real estate industry has changed, the tenant community has changed, and tenant representation has changed. A well-informed tenant must recognize and respond to these changes.
A lease is a static agreement written to describe a dynamic process, inevitably something that seemed like “a good idea at the time” becomes a problem when the point of view shifts. This creates an opportunity. Understanding the realistic power of a leverage position can help you use these opportunities to affect positive change.
Your Lease is not the right vehicle for short-term gains. Think of your lease as a long-term investment with an eye for stable returns and value appreciation. Giving your attention to lease evaluation and negotiation will help grow your asset. Making sure your lease has all the features it should have in every stage of the market cycle is the goal.
What you don't know can, and will, hurt you in your lease negotiations. Here are 8 common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
There are several rent reduction and production improvement strategies that could be implemented to improve your rent to production ratio, all of which will require actively managing your lease.Thoroughly understood and properly administered, your lease should be treated as a business tool that will add value and help you reach your short and long term goals.
Most tenants run a specialized operation that has nothing to do with commercial real estate. Having an innovative and objective advocate become a temporary member of your team to strategically negotiate on your behalf is essential. Your advocate should protect your position by minimizing your risk, reducing your operating and occupancy expenses, mitigating your exit restoration exposures, and providing future flexibilities.
There are three possible conclusions when resolving any difference of opinion between people, including differences during a lease negotiation. The trick is understanding how to negotiate a true resolution rather than set yourself up for future trouble and aggravation.
Tenants are often faced with seemingly hopeless lease problems. The tendency is to struggle on, quietly enduring the issue, or worse, spend a great deal of time, money and emotional energy chasing the problem rather than the solution. The challenge is to re-focus and find a new perspective that can present a cost-effective resolution.
A lease is written at a particular point in time, but it describes a complex relationship between at least two parties that continues for many years. Circumstances change every day. Some circumstances are predictable, others are not. Every provision of every lease may be appropriate, inappropriate, or of no consequence at a given point in time depending on varying factors. Be aware of potential problems but know how to look for the opportunities.
Key profile and access points to consider during Site Selection. These key factors, directly connected to your building and your geographical area, can account for up to 40% of your volume. Your Lease needs to have the correct provisions to ensure you can exercise some control over the Profile and Access of your location.
Many Tenants confess that they have known for a period of years that their Lease Term would not be renewed, but deferred action until the eleventh hour. Many simply don't have the time or the expertise to manage Lease affairs. Make sure you clearly understand how your options to renew work, and how you should administer them.
Check your lease for rent overpayment. It's very unlikely your landlord will tell you that you are overpaying rent, but If your premises area is misrepresented in your lease this may very well be the case.
The market trend in Commercial Leasing is toward “net” leases, which means the tenant agrees to pay the landlord a “base” or “minimal” rent plus additional rent to make up the gross rent. How do you know what you should be paying? How do you verify the amounts? And how do you confirm which costs are relevant? Not all tenants get good value for their Additional Rent dollar, don't let your Reconciliation Statement take you by surprise.
The commercial real estate industry has changed dramatically in the past 5 years. As a tenant you need to be aware of the changes and manage your position accordingly.
Perhaps you are familiar with the child’s game of musical chairs – where children move around a group of chairs and when the music stops each child dashes for a chair leaving the most
Welcome to 2015. A lot has changed and is changing at this time. For example, I have cancelled my land line with Bell after decades; the only difference I experience is no monthly charges and no telemarketer calls.
To be successful in this current commercial real estate market, you have to believe that there is always an opportunity in adversity.