Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business

by Janet Portman Attorney

Overview

Despite what you’ve been told, there is no standard lease

You’ve heard it already: “This is our standard lease—sign it.” But often, you can negotiate what you need. And to do that, you’ll need insight into the rules.

Armed with Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business, you’ll find the advice and strategies you need when negotiating with an experienced landlord. This practical handbook explains how to:

• analyze your space needs
• find the ideal location
• understand the landlord’s rent calculations
• learn how to negotiate your tenant improvement allowance (TIA)
• make sense of common area maintenance allocation
• suggest alternatives to hefty security deposits
• allocate the responsibility and cost of fixing up your space
• avoid costly code compliance and clean-ups, and
• save your lease if you can’t live up to it now and then.

The 4th edition provides the latest strategies for working with brokers and lawyers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781413328028
Publisher:	NOLO
Publication date:	11/24/2020
Edition description:	Fourth Edition
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	1,026,280
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Nolo's Executive Editor, Janet Portman oversees editorial work on all Nolo books, articles, and websites. She specializes in residential and commercial landlord/tenant law, legal issues related to courts, and criminal law. She is the author or a coauthor of Every Landlord's Legal Guide, Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants, First-Time Landlord: Your Guide to Renting Out a Single-Family Home, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Renters' Rights, Leases & Rental Agreements, The California Landlord's Law Book: Rights and Responsibilities, and California Tenants' Rights.



Portman received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford Universityand a law degree from Santa Clara UniversitySchool of Law. Before joining Nolo in 1994, she practiced law as a public defender.

Table of Contents

Part I: Finding and Evaluating Space and Developing a Negotiation Strategy 1. Get Ready to Negotiate Your Commercial Lease 2. Looking for Space and Using Brokers 3. Evaluating the Space and the Landlord 4. Understanding the True Size and Cost of the Rental 5. Setting the Stage to Negotiate 6. Your Negotiation Strategy Part II: Common Lease Terms 7. Lease Basics 8. The Length of Your Lease 9. Rent 10. Security Deposits 11. Improvements and Alterations 12. Maintenance, Utilities, and Code Compliance 13. Parking, Signs, Landlord's Entry, and Security 14. Option to Renew or Sublet and Other Flexibility Clause 15. Insurance Clauses 16. Breaking the Lease, Disputes, and Attorney Fees 17. Foreclosures, Condemnations, Guarantors, and Other Clauses Index

Editorial Reviews

Educate yourself about negotiating a lease through a book like [Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business ]." San Francisco Chronicle

"Shows you how to rewrite the boilerplate you're presented with to get the most flexibility at the lowest cost." Accounting Today

"Relatively few books exist on negotiating commercial leases, and most only skim the process.... all advice and strategies needed to evaluate a commercial space and obtain a good lease is standard in Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business." Bookwatch

"A fine book on leasing... Portman and Steingold have crafted a dandy book for the aspiring entrepreneur as well as a valuable reference book for the seasoned businessperson." Sacramento Business Journal

"Portman, an author, attorney, and specialist in landlord-tenant law, explains how businesses can negotiate leases. She describes deciding on the type of space most appropriate for a business, including looking for space, evaluating it and the landlord, understanding the true size and cost of the rental, preparing to negotiate, and negotiation strategy, and common lease terms, such as length, rent, security deposits, improvements and alterations, maintenance, utilities, code compliance, parking, signs, landlord entry, security, option to renew or sublet, insurance claims, breaking the lease, disputes, attorney fees, foreclosures, condemnations, and guarantors. This edition includes new strategies or working with brokers and lawyers." Eithne O'Leyne, EditorRinggold, Inc., ProtoView

From the Publisher

A fine book on leasing... Portman and Steingold have crafted a dandy book for the aspiring entrepreneur as well as a valuable reference book for the seasoned businessperson.

Sacramento Business Journal

Offers advice and strategies, in plain English, for negotiating a lease for a small business. Covers all aspects of the process, from evaluating potential space and landlords, to getting improvements, renewing the lease, and getting out before the lease ends. Explains how to keep future rents manageable and how to ensure costs are shared fairly among tenants, and warns about potential problems, such as responsibilities for environmental problems and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Includes checklists and worksheets. The authors are attorneys who have written other legal guides. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Shows you how to rewrite the boilerplate you're presented with to get the most flexibility at the lowest cost.

Accounting Today

Educate yourself about negotiating a lease through a book like [Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business ].

San Francisco Chronicle

Relatively few books exist on negotiating commercial leases, and most only skim the process.... all advice and strategies needed to evaluate a commercial space and obtain a good lease is standard in Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business.

Bookwatch