Am I required to pay under lease agreement?
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Am I required to pay under lease agreement?
If my lease states "Tenant shall, at Tenant's sole cost and expense, maintain the Leased Premises in a clean, neat and sanitary condition and shall keep the Leased Premises and every, part thereof in good condition and repair except where the same is required to be done by Landlord." and then "Tenant may perform all maintenance to the interior and exterior of the Leased Premises and keep the same in good operating condition and repair, including, but not limited to, maintaining, repairing and replacing, if necessary, the roof..." does this mean that I, as the tenant am required to pay for a roof re-sealing? "Shall" in the first sentence, and then "may" in the next is causing some confusion and before I pay for a roof reseal on a building I don't own, I was looking for some clarification. Thank you
I am in Arizona, if that matters. Thanks.
Hello! My name is Dolan and thank you so much for contacting me! I just had a few quick questions for you: Does the agreement define what the "leased premises," technically is? Does this roof include the common areas covering other tenants?
Hi Dolan, thank you for your response. It states the following: "Leased Premises. Landlord hereby leases to Tenant, and Tenant hereby leases and accepts from Landlord, the Leased Premises, upon the terms and conditions set forth in this Lease and any modifications, supplements or addenda hereto (the “Lease”), including the Basic Provisions of Article 1 which are incorporated herein by this reference. Tenant accepts the Leased Premises in its existing condition and the parties agree that Landlord shall have no obligation to improve or alter the Leased Premises as a condition of Tenant’s acceptance of possession." We're the only tenant in the building, as it's not a "multiple suite" type place. Thank you, *****
Ok! Did you need to tell me anything else? If not, I can start with answering your question.
Only other thing worth mentioning is that when we were coming up with the lease terms, it was mentioned to us that we'd be responsible for replacing HVAC units, which we thought was odd due to it not being our building. We had the lease amended to say: "The Tenant shall be responsible for any and all replacement of the HVAC if the same is deemed unrepairable; provided, however, that Landlord and Tenant shall share the cost of replacement of any HVAC unit servicing the Leased Premises based upon the useful life of such new HVAC unit and the remaining Term of the Lease. For example, if a new HVAC unit has a useful life of 15 years, and 5 years remain in the Lease Term, Tenant shall pay one-third of the cost of the new HVAC unit, and Landlord shall pay two-thirds of such cost." This, we felt, was a fair compromise and when we were first notified of needing to have the roof re-coated, I offered that same kind of suggestion, where how about we pay for a % equal to the length of time we had left in the lease. That was met with a suggestion to go ahead and seek legal advice, which is what brought me here. If we're legally bound to pay for that cost, fine, but without someone else explaining that it definitely means it's 100% our responsibility, I have a hard time just agreeing to it. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.
Ok! I just need a little time to draft up a high-quality answer. I'll be with you as soon as possible. It won't be terribly long, ok?
Ok thanks. Based on your lease language, it does seem a little ambiguous, especially with the difference between "shall" and "may." The first part makes it sound like you're required to maintain and repair the premises except where the landlord is responsible, but the second part seems to give you the option to maintain, repair, and replace things like the roof rather than making it a strict obligation. That could be open to interpretation. Typically, ambiguities are construed against the drafter which I presume would be the landlord in this case, which works out for you. What you can do right now is go back to the landlord and ask for clarification. If they’re insisting that it’s your responsibility, ask them to point to the specific lease provision that clearly says so. You want to make sure they’re not just assuming you have to pay when the lease wording doesn’t fully back that up.
The next thing you can do is you could propose a compromise similar to what you worked out for the HVAC units. If the roof reseal extends the lifespan of the building beyond your lease term, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for you to pay the full amount. You could suggest splitting the cost based on how much time you have left on the lease, which would be a fairer approach. Not every landlord is agreeable, so if the landlord refuses to budge, ask them what a fair offer would be to settle this.
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