The lease document so frequently is perceived as the behemoth, insensitive beast that after being signed gets sent to lease heaven hopefully never to be seen again. Lawyers parse words and froth over nuance wording as if to protect against the most catastrophic circumstances. Owners repulse at the very thought of their precious language (that they paid thousands of dollars to prepare) being picked apart. In fact, most landlords using either basic leases with skeletal information or leases containing 40 pages of terms and 11 pages of riders which can be used as doorstops, frequently indicate that there can be no changes. The poor tenant sits on the side lines, waving as if to say "remember me, I'm paying the bill!" The reality is, not only can you modify nearly every term in the lease, but if you really want, like some large national tenants do, you can provide your own lease. The lease should not be viewed as the anti-Christ at all. On the contrary, a good, ugly, carefully put together lease will save you years of problems, disputes, court appearances and money. While a sale contract is designed to govern the activities of the parties prior to and up to a closing, a lease governs the activities of the parties for years and decades. Drafted badly or even slightly wrong, and many are, it can be indentured servitude. The key to making the lease work well is to make it come alive with provisions which work well in a multitude of circumstances, which fairly well address most difficulties that may arise over its life; and to make it readable and well understood. The problem with many leases is that there has been little working knowledge of the hand-in-hand relationship between ownership and management, management and leasing, services and tenant's needs. The lease just becomes flat words crammed into little paragraphs no one really cares ever to read unless they're preparing a law suit.
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