Real Estate Law Blog

One of the many issues commonly negotiated between landlords and tenants is the condition of the state of repair that the premises must be in at the expiry of the lease. Typically, a standard form lease will require that the tenant return the premises to the landlord in the same condition as that which it is required to maintain during the term of the lease, and to remove certain ...

Recently, a number of retail enterprises have availed themselves of the protection of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Canada’s insolvency statutes.  The BIA and CCAA, as federal statutes, have various provisions that allow a debtor to deal with their leases in a manner which may be inconsistent with the ...

Landlords who enter into commercial leases with tenants accept, and expect in return, some degree of liability as spelled out in leases and commercial tenancy legislation. After all, leases are intended to be two-way streets: the landlord provides the tenant with a leasehold interest in real property, and the tenant pays rent in return. Understandably, landlords are in no ...

In a recent decision from the BC Court of Appeal, the court once again had to struggle with the often difficult issue of what is a "chattel" and what becomes a "fixture" during the course of a commercial tenancy.  In the result, the court confirmed that the test of a chattel v. fixture is not a subjective one, but rather is objective.  Accordingly, although parties to a commercial ...

A recent Ontario Superior Court case will be of interest to commercial landlords and tenants alike.

In 1251614 Ontario Ltd v. Gurudutt, the tenant signed a 10 year lease that granted the tenant the right to renew the lease for 2 further terms of 5 years each, with rental rates to be negotiated at the time of renewal and settled by arbitration, if necessary. In addition, the lease ...

The recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Alignvest Private Debt Ltd v Surefire Industries Ltd, 2015 ABQB 148 (“Alignvest”) raises important issues for landlords to consider respecting the provisions in a lease that deal with security deposits. In particular, Alignvest provides guidance on how landlords can protect their rights to a security ...

It is common practice in lease negotiations for the parties to begin by informally negotiating the major lease terms. When the parties reach consensus on these major terms, they execute an offer to lease.  Such offer may be binding or non-binding.  A binding offer to lease is a contract itself and is enforceable.  Both parties should carefully consider whether they want the ...

A recent case from the BC Supreme Court has highlighted yet again that a guarantee or indemnity of a lease (here now referred to as an “Indemnity”) does not necessarily assure payment to a landlord following a default by a tenant.  The terms of the Indemnity must be carefully scrutinized and examined to determine if the specific circumstances outlined in the document are ...

Most commercial leases contain terms that require tenants to pay additional rent. Additional rent is usually a share of the costs and charges incurred to operate the property. These costs can include municipal taxes, insurance premiums, repair and maintenance costs and common area utility charges. In any given year, these charges change and fluctuate.  Landlords often ...

Likely because the application of the law is uncertain, commercial leases generally have detailed clauses dealing with the question of when a piece of equipment or an improvement installed in a premises becomes a fixture or remains a chattel.  The answer matters as fixtures, in law, are considered to be part of the land and, at the end of a lease, ordinarily would revert to the ...