Lost lease for garage and want to update terms to increase rent.
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Lost lease for garage and want to update terms to increase rent.
Hi! I lease an automotive garage and I cannot find my lease agreement anywhere. I want to update the terms and increase the rent but I can't remember if I wrote anything about this in the original lease from ****. Should I tell the tenant that I don't have the lease anymore and trust them to give me an accurate copy? Or should I just draft a new lease and present them with new terms that they need to agree to all the while pretending I still have the old lease agreement.
Hello ****! My name is Dolan Williams and I'm a licensed attorney and your new right hand. Just a few quick questions: 1. Is this your only tenant on this particular property? 2. If not, do other tenants have a copy (that you trust)? 3. Do you remember when the old lease was scheduled to end? Thanks so much!
Hi there! Thanks so much for your help. This is the only lease like this on our property. Before we could buy our farm, the old owners made us sign it so that their son could keep his auto restoration business running. The spirit of their intent was that they wanted him to run it for 7 years to reach retirement (3.5 years in now). My recollection is that it was a one-year lease but that any changes to it would need to be submitted by September to be effective in the new year and that a termination would require 6 months notice. I do have a copy of the lease that the old owners had signed with their son, but I didn't see any language similar to this so I have no idea now if I imagined that or if there are some dates and timelines that I need to adhere to. My thought was that maybe by drafting a new one he would either agree to it or give me a copy of the old one to point out how the new one violated the old one. I'm just a bit nervous that if he finds out I don't have the lease, he might give me a document that is altered or just refuse to give it to me because he'll know that I want to make changes that are not in his favor.
You're most welcome! It makes sense to be nervous. In my experience, most tenants want to make sure they are not being screwed over, so they are almost always honest about the terms. I'll be sure to address that, though in a moment. You mentioned you wanted to update the terms. Were you wanting to update something like the rental amount? Were you seeking to cancel the terms?
Yes, I want to update the monthly rent amount, start charging for utilities, and reinforce that they should not be here outside of our agreed hours.
Ok! Did you need to tell me anything else? If not, I can start with answering your question.
Nope, I think that's it
Ok! I just need a little time to draft up a high-quality answer. I'll be with you as soon as possible.
I'm so sorry about this situation! I want to address your situation with a detailed response, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask because this law stuff can get complicated. So there are a few things to consider: 1. Legally, the tenant cannot provide to you terms that are phony or a legal misrepresentation of the terms that were agreed to. 2. Even if the property had been sold or transferred, the terms of the agreement "run with the land," meaning that the terms don't change. 3. Also, every contract comes with implied promises from both parties that they are going to be acting fairly toward one another. (Restatement (Second) of Contracts, Section 201.) The failure of one party to act fairly toward others can result in a breach of contract. 4. Practically speaking, I found that most tenants are so concerned about their landlord refusing to acknowledge the agreed-upon terms that they are MORE likely to be honest and compliant. 5. So what does this mean? It means that I recommend drafting an email to them that states that you would like to peacefully obtain a true and correct copy, but do not tell them that you intend to make changes yet. Below is a sample of what you can write:
Dear (put their name here) I hope this letter finds you well. As you know, we’ve been working together to ensure that our arrangement for the property is smooth and mutually beneficial. I’m reaching out because I’ve been reviewing the agreements tied to the property to make sure everything is up-to-date and in line with what was originally agreed upon. In doing so, I wanted to confirm that I have the most recent version of the lease agreement for our records. It’s important to us to maintain accurate documentation, so if you have a copy of the agreement you’re currently operating under, I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide me with one for my files. Thanks so much for your help. Please let me know if you need anything from me to make this easier, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Your name
Nevertheless, once you get the agreement, you're welcome to come back and we can review the agreement. Contract reviews range from $***-$*** depending on the scope, but we can always review or make suggestions on it as you see fit. Does that help clarify things? I want to make sure I didn’t leave anything out.
Well, turns out my husband did have a copy of the lease, but there is no language allowing me to change it for 7 years. The only thing I can think of is that there are a few statements about how the tenants need to comply with working hours and days that they aren't complying with and make their payments on time. They did Miss one month's payment and pay it late. Is my best option to document a few of these contract violations so that I can consider the contract void and then write a new one?
Hello ****! So it actually depends. Typically, the contract will call for what happens if there is a breach and the contract typically doesn't allow for an outright termination or modification of the lease agreement. Because parties have a right to generally cure matters with good faith, it may be better off to send a demand that they perform this or else you'll have to seek an eviction. You can also suggest that if they are willing, you guys can enter into a new agreement on new terms. I can even draft them for you (the cost is around $***) to draft new terms and conditions so there is NO MORE confusion. Thanks so much!
Hey thanks so much. I did notice that in a contract that if the general terms are violated they need 30 days to remedy them with the exception of abandoning the property or failing to pay for more than 30 days. I think what we'd like to do next is have a lawyer review the contract just to tell us how we could get out of it without waiting another 3 and 1/2 years. Do you think you would be need to be licensed in Pennsylvania to do that? And can you share what the cost would be for a legal opinion on the ways we can break or amend the contract early?
Hi ****, Good question, but no; the law doesn't require a license in PA for this because reviewing is not the same as going to your state and representing you in some criminal or family law matter. Just like you can have ChatGPT (which isn't a lawyer) review the docs, we can, too! So I can properly tailor the quote, could you upload the document for me here?
[FILE UPLOAD]
Hi ****, Thank you so much. Since this is only 15 pages, and because you have a membership, I'll do this for $*** (10% off) my regular price. Is it ok if I get this back to you today? Also, I'll send you a link for this particular job. Thanks!
Hey thanks, can we add a bit more specificity to the offer that you'll look for. 1. Ways to break the lease, 2. Ways to approach the issues that are bothering us like arriving before 6am to start work or working on Sunday or coming by in the evenings to work on personal cars. We also looked at our past checks and noticed that many are dated after the 15 day Mark. Can we still charge the 5% penalty for those even if they were as far back as January or does this need to be more timely?
You got it; I will answer those questions, too. No extra charge of course.
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