Question by azntennisguy: What can I legally do to fight back a commercial landlord who discriminately declines us an option to renew?
My family purchased a Chinese restaurant business in a commercial shopping center about five years ago in California and our five year lease is up in August. The owner of the commercial property has not offered our restaurant business an option to renew our lease. We had already invested a couple of hundred thousand dollars in this business (including expensive computer and kitchen equipment), but as the end of the lease approaches, we’re scared that we can’t even sell the restaurant off even if we wanted to. I have spoken with the Asset Manager of the company that owns the property and he said that he cannot give us a long-term lease but we can pay rent on a month-to-month basis.
When I asked why couldn’t we get a long-term lease renewal, he originally said that they were going to do some remodeling on the entire front building complex (the building’s arcade) after our lease ends sometime while we’re paying rent on a month-to-month basis and then he said that we will need to vacate the premises once construction actually starts (he also said that he was going to give us a 30-day notice to vacate as well). But then I asked if we could get our original business location back after construction has completed… A moment later he said that there’s going to be a “70% chance that there’s going to be investment in the property” so that they can “change up the assortment of tenants on the property” towards a specific marketing concept where there will be select requirements for the new tenants: business income level, type of business, ability to pay higher rent, etc. I don’t exactly know what kind of “marketing concept” he was going for or even if restaurants were a part of that marketing concept equation’s composition.
It’s interesting to note that some of our family business’ neighboring tenants are also of Asian-descent, but they have about two years of their lease left. I just found it odd that they were targeting our mom and pop businesses and slowly try to get us out of the shopping center.
Can this company just kick us out like that? Isn’t there some sort of California Commercial Code that says this illegal? But more specifically (and what my family’s more concerned about), is there any way to make the company help us recoup our losses from having to find another location for our restaurant business?
Best answer:
Answer by dog ma
They are not kicking you out, they are simply electing to not renew your lease. The only way to guarantee that you will always have a permanent location is to own the building. Keep up as long as you can with the month-to-month situation, but be looking for a new location. Month-to-month also means that you can leave when you want to with 30 days notice. There are no laws that will force them to help you move – you only signed a 5 year lease and that time frame is now over.
What do you think? Answer below!
Technorati Tags: back, Commercial, declines, discriminately, fight, landlord, legally, option, renew
