Since leasing relationships can last more than one year and different things can happen during this time it is important to understand all of your possible risks and legal consequences before signing a lease contract. To reduce your risks we suggest youto use the following verification questions. At that in order to significantly reduce the risks of Lessee and develop a legal position, it is higly recommended to contact with qualified leasing lawyer.
What is indicated in the subject of Lease Agreement?
If the subject of the contract contains incorrect information, you risk not only to pay extra amount of the rent (for example, if the amount of the lease depends on the area of the premises), but also you risk that the contract will be invalidated.
What is lease term?
Typically, the term of lease is not more than one year or a period starting from three years (in commercial real estate). But also there can be lease contract with monthly lease term, which gives significant flexibility for the tenant and the lessor in theier relations. Monthly rentals are ideal when you renting a dwelling in foreign city for a short time.
What restrictions are provided by the contract?
The lessor can limit the number of people who can live in a dwelling. The landlord can set certain hours of use of the premises (in commercial real estate).
What are the conditions of lease term prolongation? What are the consequences of the contract if you do not return the premises on time?
How many preliminary notifications about your decision on prolongation of the lease contract should you send to the Lessor? And in which term?
Will the lease term be automatically extended if you do not send a notice on time?
What sanctions are provided by the contract?
The lease contract may contain provisions about fixed penalty, which you will have to pay in case you violate the lease terms. Such penalty means that the lessor will not need to prove the actual amount of damage that was caused by you.
How are rental payment provisions formulated?
The provisions of the agreement about the amount of rent should be formulated very accurately and unambiguously. The disputes which can be arised due to the provisions with incorrect or ambiguous information may serve as the basis for invalidating the lease agreement. The provisions on the amount of rent along with the provisions on the subject of the contract are the significant conditions of the lease contract.
When the rent should be paid?
Do you have enough time to pay your rent after the due date?
What are the security deposit requirements?
Do you have the sublease right under a contract?
It is likely that the provisions of the lease agreement contain requirements for mandatory approval of the sublease by the lessor. Make sure that this provision also provides the condition that the lessor does not have the right to unreasonably refuse such approval.
Who pays for utility bills?
What are the conditions for repair and maintenance of the premises provided?
Insist on joint verification of physical condition of the premises before the conclusion of the lease contract. Make a list of such deficiencies in the premises in case of revealing them, and ask the landlord to sign it. Also coordinate with the lessor the terms during which the lessor agrees to eliminate such shortcomings. Otherwise, you will eliminate such shortcomings at your own expense.
Tip: do not rely on the lessor’s verbal promise not to apply the contractual sanctions to the lessee.
Lease agreements are quite lengthy documents and often the lessor (or the management company that represents it) may not reflect the Parties agreements (including the amount of the rent) carefully enough. For example, there was a case when a tenant was paying the rent for five years before the lawyer checked the contract and found that the amount of rent under the lease contract was indicated for a neighboring, much larger premise in Mall. Thus, the tenant overpaid the rent for five years and the Lessor was not in hurry to inform lessee about it. These consequences could have been avoided if the leasing lawyer had checked the contract before it was signed.
Operating expenses are the fees charged by tenants for the maintenance of commercial real estate (malls, offices). Typically, operating expenses include costs for maintaining a parking lot, landscaping, lighting, maintaining security in the building, and much more. In most cases, the amount of Operating Expenses is strictly fixed under the Lease Agreement. Usually such fixed OPEX can be indexed once a year by the value of the Consumer Price Index. But sometimes the amount of Operating Expenses under the Lease Agreement is indicated depending on the costs actually incurred by the Landlord at its discretion. So-called “Open Book" principle. In case of “Open Book” principle, the Lessee will not be able to predict the amount of Operating Expenses and as a result these expenses will be able to exceed the amount of the Rent itself. According to this principle, based on its actual costs the Lessor will be able to accrue the amount of Operating Expenses at any time. At the same time, an information of this principle may be hidden in the most unforeseen places of the Lease Agreement and only a qualified leasing lawyer will be able to find and neutralize it.
We will conduct a comprehensive verification and thorough analysis of your contract. Our rental lawyers will point out the risks, give practical advice and legally correctly edit the text of the lease contract. We will develop necessary additional agreements to lease agreements, etc.
We will draw up a lease agreement for any premises from scratch. This contract will provide your interests and comply with the laws of the Russian Federation. We will also draft any additional agreements and other documentation for lease agreements.
We will take full legal support of the lease and other activities of the lessor. Such legal support includes consulting, development and verification of any documents, negotiations with contractors and much more.
We will prepare a law suit, an objection to law suit, and other documents for court. We will get acquainted with the case materials and protect your interests in court.
We will thoroughly analyze and carefully make out the lease agreement for any non-residential (commercial, office, warehouse) or residential (apartment, house) premises. We will identify risks, give recommendations and correctly edit the text of agreement. We will write the necessary additional agreements lease contracts and etc.
Taking into account all your requirements and wishes, we will draw up a lease contract which will serve your interests in best way. We will also draft any additional agreements and other documents for lease contract.
We will provide legal support for lease relations, as well as legal support for any other activities of the Lessee.
We will prepare a statement of claim, an objection to the statement of claim, and other documents for the trial. We will get acquainted with the case materials and will protect your interests in court.
+ WE ARE PROFESSIONALS
We are team of professional leasing lawyers who have come together to provide the best legal services.
+ OUR EXPERIENCE
Many of our lawyers have gained their experience in such companies as “ECE Rusland”, “Renaissance Construction”, “Immofinance”, “Inditex”, “Detsky Mir” and other companies well- known in the real estate retail market. Our lawyers also have extensive working experience in street retail, residential rent, warehouse and office premises.
+ CONFIDENTIALITY
We care about safety of your information. And we do not allow "leaks".
+ WE PERFORM OUR WORKS IN THE SHORTEST TIME
We start working on the order immediately after receiving it
+ SPECIALIZED LEGAL SERVICE
We do not provide a full range of legal services for the sake of quantity, not quality. We are focused on legal support of lease relations and we do it efficiently and professionally.
+ MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
The total experience of our lawyers is more than 40 years.
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