In today’s Freedom Friday blog and email newsletter, I’m going to answer a question that I probably do not get asked frequently enough, and that’s when my business should hire a commercial real estate attorney. At Liberty Legal Solutions, LLC, we handle many different commercial real estate issues, including both litigation and transactional concerns. In today’s Freedom Friday blog and email newsletter, I’m answering the question, “How do I choose a commercial real estate attorney in Oklahoma for my business?”
First of all, any decisions involving commercial real estate can directly impact your business. Purchasing a building, negotiating a lease, developing property, and resolving a dispute can all involve substantial time and resources that directly affect the operations of your business. A commercial real estate attorney can assist you and your business in evaluating those risks before contracts are signed and address issues when transactions do not proceed as they should. Involving an attorney early on is especially valuable if a transaction involves complicated lease terms, financing requirements, multiple owners, or other significant development issues. For example, if your business is looking to purchase commercial property, you want to bring an attorney on early enough to draft a purchase agreement because the purchase agreement will determine the deadline for due diligence, representations, warranties, how and when closing will occur, default remedies, etc. Your attorney can assist in due diligence, as well, because you may need to investigate title issues, existing leases and other obligations, all of which will affect how the property is used. An attorney can also review the documents for the transaction alongside brokers, lenders, and others to make sure the legal documents reflect the buyer’s intent.
Another example of when your business should bring in a commercial real estate attorney to assist with a transaction is with a significant commercial lease. A commercial lease can be a major expense of any business, and any business owner will tell you rent is one of the largest expenses contributing to overhead. Commercial lease terms can be heavily influenced by negotiation. A tenant may be responsible not only for rent, but also for taxes, insurance, maintenance, common area charges, repairs, along with other operating costs. Businesses also need to understand provisions involving subletting, renewal options, permitted uses, improvements, personal guarantees, default, and early termination. Even the landlord needs to be careful to make sure the lease clearly identifies the tenant’s obligations for rent and otherwise and what remedies are available should a tenant not pay rent or otherwise default.
Finally, your business definitely needs to hire a commercial real estate attorney when a dispute develops, and a lawsuit is on the horizon regarding a commercial real estate transaction. Even if the issue is a “minor one” for a tenant that failed to pay rent and needs to be evicted, you need to hire an attorney. You also need to hire an attorney if you are going after the tenant for damages to the property beyond unpaid rent. Your attorney will need to review the underlying contract at issue in the dispute and determine what remedies (or defenses) are available. Common commercial real estate disputes include failure to pay rent, maintenance and repairs issues, breach of purchase agreements, issues involving unauthorized improvements, boundary and easement disputes, defaults on commercial leases, and disputes involving personal guarantees and/or deposits. If your business has already been sued for any one of these issues, hire a commercial real estate attorney right away to protect your interests.
If your business needs strategic and/or aggressive business legal counsel to handle issues with contracts, leases, business partners, collection matters, or assistance overcoming other barriers to growth, please contact me at Jonathan@libertylegalok.com to schedule a FREE strategy session.
For more information about Liberty Legal Solutions, LLC, please visit our website at https://www.libertylegalok.com/