The Relocation Clause

You’re a professional. You’ve been trained to understand what your client needs. And you know how to find the best real estate. You and your client are excited, you sign the offers and then close the deal.

What you may not know is that you’ve made a big mistake. The lease your client just signed will ruin their business. And they’ll blame you.

This happens frequently when negotiating and signing offers because, although legal advice is advisable, it isn’t practical. Lawyers give complex, lengthy and expensive analysis and slow the deal process. As a lawyer who built and led a leasing department for a private equity real estate investment firm, I saw how lawyers would frustrate everyone; yet, without legal advice major consequences would follow.

Since a lawyer may not be readily available, it’s best to arm yourself with knowledge and think like a lawyer. To think like a lawyer is easy – be paranoid and always think in “worst case scenario”!

The knowledge part, however, can be more cumbersome. So, we’ll start with one clause at a time, beginning with the most frequently overlooked but potentially dangerous clause.

The Relocation Clause

The Scenario

Your client is a hairdresser and her business depends upon walk-ins. She needs foot traffic generated by pedestrian roads and “name brand” tenants.

You find her the perfect unit. It’s right beside a popular café and that faces a busy sidewalk. You sign the offer, but pay no attention to the lease attached to the offer. After all, the terms are fairly standards and you got your tenant a great rental rate.

Three months later the landlord tells her she is being relocated to the back of building where there is no foot traffic and where there are no “feeder tenants”. After 4 months, she loses her business and you lose a client.

What Happened?

You didn’t see the “Landlord’s Right to Relocate” Clause, which stands on its own or can be buried in the “Control of Building by Landlord” Clause.

What is this Clause and Why Does the Landlord Want it?

The landlord will typically want to retain a lot of rights in its maintenance, management and operation of the building. Moving a tenant is central to a landlord’s management of the tenant mix and its ability to make changes to the building. For example, the landlord may want to attract another tenant or demolish the unit to create a larger space for an existing tenant. Given these objectives, watch out for wording that says:

Landlord has the right, on no less than sixty days’ notice, to relocate Tenant (including its subtenants and all other permitted occupants) to other space in the Centre designed by Landlord of comparable size in which the Tenant must complete the relocation within thirty days after the Landlord’s notice. The new Premises replaces the old for all purposes of the Lease.

[…]

In the event of relocation, the Landlord will pay to the Tenant on an equitable basis, for capital costs incurred by tenant for new Trade Fixtures as a direct result of such relocation.

Let’s consider our earlier hairdresser scenario. This clause gives the landlord the right to move your client with only 60 days notice. Your client has only 30 days to move, which will completely disrupt her business. The landlord, however, has no obligation to reimburse your tenant for this inconvenience.  The landlord only has to pay your client her costs to change the fixtures in the new unit and nothing else. She doesn’t get reimbursed for her loss of business income, her moving costs or her marketing costs letting her clients know about the move.

What Should You Do?

If you’re representing the tenant make sure that you strike out this clause completely. If the landlord has more bargaining power then you, insist that your client be provided a “turn-key” premises in a comparable location, size, configuration and of comparable accessibility. In other words, if your hairdresser client had this wording, she would have to have been moved to another unit that provided the same foot traffic and feeder tenants that her old unit provided.

You should also make sure that your client is reimbursed for any loss of business income, goodwill or other profits because of the relocation. If the Landlord disagrees with subsidizing these costs, then request that any relocation will only occur if your client agrees to the relocation in writing. The client should also request that all costs, including but not limited to, leasehold improvements and moving costs, be reimbursed as a result of the relocation.

For more information about the author or leases visit www.groundworksfirm.com.

DISCLAIMER: This article offers general comments on legal issues and developments of concern to business organizations and individuals and is not intended to provide legal opinions. Readers should seek professional legal advice on the particular issues that concern.

Author Biography

Natalka is a lawyer & licensed real estate sales agent who has a passion to make the law accessible & affordable. She founded, hosts & co-produces a popular legal call in show on Rogers TV, Toronto Speaks Legal Advice, & co-founded Groundworks, a firm dedicated to offering practical legal advice that helps agents, landlords and tenants make more, better & faster lease deals. All work is done by legal professionals for a fraction of the price and time of a traditional law firm.