Category: Real Property Law

New Jersey Landlord’s Guide to Disposing of Property Abandoned by a Tenant

New Jersey Landlords must follow abandoned property laws when disposing of a Tenant’s abandoned property when the real property lease is terminated and lawyers and attorneys who deal with shopping center, office or industrial leases must know about property left behind when the tenant leaves the demised or leased premises.

• Published: January 18, 2009
• By Steven Gellerstein

The Art of “Convincing” a Utility Company to Relocate its Lines Underground—A Developer’s Tool

When a developer wants to have above-ground utility lines moved underground, its municipality may be able to help.

• Published: December 21, 2008
• By Mark Morfopoulos

Ordering Title Searches When Negotiating a Lease: Is the Failure to do so Malpractice?

Beware - an attorney’s failure to order a title search in connection with negotiating a client’s lease may be malpractice.

• Published: December 21, 2008
• By Mark Morfopoulos

Professionalism Is An Asset: It Gets The Deal Done

Achieving an agreement which is a win, win deal for all. Being professional, courteous, and prepared is the best way to represent any attorney’s client. Acting in a professional way when negotating leases, contracts, mortgages, agreements, and other legal documents gets the deal done.

• Published: December 21, 2008
• By Mark Morfopoulos

Rooftop Lease Agreements: What Telephone Companies Don’t Want You To Know

Common topics that an attorney representing a landlord should consider when reviewing a rooftop lease.

• Published: October 24, 2008
• By Mark Morfopoulos

How to Create Common and Uncommon Assignment/Subletting Problems

Assignment of leases and subletting of leased premises is favored by law and disfavored by landlords. So, landlords strive for leases that place restrictions of a tenant’s ability to freely transfer its interest in a lease. The way in which those restrictions are drafted can result in opportunities for creative ways to circumvent the intended restrictions and wise draftspersons should be aware of those possibilities and opportunities.

• Published: October 21, 2008
• By Ira Meislik

Retail Leasing: Start on the Right Foot With a Well-Crafted Letter of Intent

A well-crafted Letter of Intent can save a lot of headaches and heartaches and, ultimately, is a crucial step in the lease negotiation process. It gives the parties a chance to flush out, usually (and preferably) even before the lease is drafted, the most important business terms. Here are some of the most important terms to include in your letter of intent, as well as some points to consider when negotiating such terms.

• Published: August 1, 2008
• By Karen E. Abrams

Tenant Holdover Tenancies in New Jersey

When a Tenant continues to occupy its leased premises after the Lease term has ended, it is said to “hold over.” Doing so creates a tenancy at sufferance, which may be either a tenancy at will or a tenancy for a period. In agrarian societies of old and even in today’s commercial societies, hold over tenancies are disfavored and many state’s statutes, including New Jersey’s, provide for some form of double rent as the financial remedy for the Landlord for so long as the Tenant remains in possession.

• Published: July 15, 2008
• By Ira Meislik

Implied Easements and Easements By Estoppel

There are two implied easement theories - easement by necessity and quasi-easement. Here is a short explanation of the two and a description of the existence of an “easement by estoppel” in New Jersey.

• Published: May 13, 2008
• By Ira Meislik

Common Boilerplate Provisions in Real Property Leases: A Commentary

This is a look at “boilerplate” clauses in a typical lease. But, what really is “boilerplate”? The word’s common meaning is a provision that is ordinary, common, and by implication generally acceptable. In reality, there are very few, if any, such clauses in a form lease. This treatment looks at some clauses that are often found in a pre-printed lease form. The format is simple. First, a “standard” lease provision is presented. Then, a look is taken at how its “boilerplate” nature may fail to address legitimate concerns of the parties, most often of the tenant, but significantly, also of the landlord.

• Published: April 1, 2008
• By Ira Meislik