Commercial leases are negotiated between businesses and are enforced far more literally than residential ones. The protections a residential tenant expects mostly do not apply, and the document governs.
The recurring flashpoints
Notice and cure. Nearly every commercial lease requires written notice of a default and an opportunity to cure before the landlord can terminate. The provisions are specific about form, address and timing — and a landlord who terminates without following them precisely may find the termination ineffective and itself a breach. This is the single most common procedural error on the landlord side.
Operating expenses and CAM. Disputes over what is included in common area maintenance, how it is allocated, and whether capital improvements are being passed through as expenses. Audit rights, where the lease grants them, are the tenant’s main tool and are often unused.
Condition, repair and maintenance. Who is responsible for the roof, the HVAC, the structure. The allocation is entirely a matter of the lease, and generic assumptions are usually wrong.
Assignment and subletting. Whether consent is required, and whether the landlord must be reasonable in withholding it. Where the lease says consent may not be unreasonably withheld, what counts as reasonable becomes the fight.
Holdover. What happens when a tenant stays past expiry — often a substantial rent multiplier, and sometimes an implied month-to-month tenancy, depending on the lease and conduct.
Exclusive use and co-tenancy. In retail, whether the landlord has leased to a competitor in breach of an exclusive, or whether anchor-tenant departures trigger tenant remedies.
Remedies, and the duty to mitigate
On a tenant default a landlord’s options typically include terminating the lease, terminating possession while holding the tenant to the rent, or suing for rent as it comes due. Which is available depends on the lease and the state.
The recurring question is whether the landlord must mitigate by trying to re-let. States differ, and some leases address it directly. It frequently determines the size of the claim.
Guaranties matter here. Many commercial leases are backed by a personal or parent guaranty, and whether the guarantor’s obligation survives a modification of the lease is a question that turns on the guaranty’s own terms.
Self-help
Some jurisdictions permit a commercial landlord to re-enter without a court order in defined circumstances; others treat it as unlawful. Getting this wrong is expensive — a wrongful lockout can expose a landlord to damages well beyond the rent at issue. It is worth confirming the rule in the governing state before acting, not after.
Practical guidance
For landlords. Follow the notice provisions exactly, including the addresses and delivery methods. Document the default and the condition of the premises contemporaneously. Decide the remedy before acting, because some choices foreclose others.
For tenants. Read the notice provisions when you sign, not when you receive one. Use audit rights on operating expenses. Raise condition and repair issues in writing, in the form the lease requires — a complaint made by phone to the property manager will not exist later.
For both. The lease is the case. Disputes are resolved by reading the document and the correspondence, and the party whose contemporaneous record is better usually prevails.