A lease is just a lease? Yeah, right.
This is a story of knowing your client. Here's why. I love it when people -- usually ones not too experienced in the industry -- tell me, "Oh, leases are all pretty much the same. You have a landlord, a tenant, a building and a term. Just plug in the magic words and off you go." In a word, wrong. In fact, this is wrong on so many levels that I felt I needed to write about it. First of all, who is the tenant and what is the building? Different buildings and different tenants require completely different types of leases. Yes, some of the language can be the same but the needs are completely different between, for example, office and industrial and retail uses. Here is just one example. Most commercial leases contain a clause requiring the tenant to use and occupy the premises throughout the term of the lease. Now, many of my landlord clients really do not give a hoot whether an office or industrial tenant actually uses the premises, so long as it keeps writing that r