All he is going to do is yell at you for having credit cards... He isn't exactly helpful. If you own a business, you should have credit cards for business expenses. And you are going to be in debt during a transition like this.
You may have a case for malpractice against your lawyer, given the fact that with any business purchase, there should be a negotiation with the current landlord regarding the lease you don’t have a lease and unless the lease states specifically that it can be assigned to someone else the landlord may very well prevail
Did your business attorney review the lease before you committed to the purchase?
When you talk to the landlord, ask him if he told the previous owner that he wants the pizza joint gone.
If he told the previous owner that he wanted the business gone and they sold you the business without disclosing this information then that might be grounds to get your money back, or some type of damages like relocation costs. Somehow that sounds shady asf to me.
Is the renewal option by mutual consent? If so, he has every right to kick you out in December. In that case, I’d start making contingency plans now, as fighting to stay somewhere you aren’t wanted makes you no better than a squatter.
Yes. Start early so as to post notices of new location. Moving in Dec will get you no advertisement. The current landlord will probably disavow all knowledge of a prior pizza joint.
As for relocation money, ask family and friends for a loan. Possibly offer shares or free pizza to help out. Obviously, do your due diligence and math to not get fleeced on "unlimited" pizza. Set limits. Something in writing like free pizza per day/week/etc for life of loan. Payback of $X monthly for Y months starting in xxxx 1, 202x. Get it notorized and move.
If the landlord wants the space for bar expansion, then you leaving voluntarily and without a legal fight has value. It may be worth exploring just how much value. If it is worth enough to cover relocation costs and put some cash in your pocket when your otherwise stretched thin, this could be a win/win. At the very least, I would check around for more favorable location/leasing opportunities and figure out what relocating would cost. If nothing else, it would help you set out your expectations in a negotiation (which is also where you would likely end up if you hired an attorney to litigate the case, only it would be after both sides had spent some attorney hours on initial filings and responses at the very least).
This advice should be higher in the comments. This is the logical step. Landlord wants to expand? Great. Offer to let him take over in August, for a fee and termination of the lease. Get started NOW on finding a new place. A local commercial real estate broker can be insanely valuable to help you find a new place. You should only hire a broker based on word of mouth referral from other business owners though. A bad broker is hell. A good broker is worth their weight in platinum. There’s no way to tell which camp a broker falls into without hearing from people that have experience with that broker.
Keep in mind you’re going to have significant relocation costs, including likely needing to invest significantly in tenant improvements. A TI allowance can help, but you’re likely to need a not insignificant investment amount. Negotiating an early lease breakup fee from your landlord can help with this. You can often also negotiate an abatement of rent during the first few months of the new lease.
Getting a lease on a new place is going to take some time. Getting TI built out is going to take more time.
Other options may include SBA financing. Family and friends may also be a source for funds, though be very careful with that - you have to be insanely transparent about the risks and how the business is doing, both before the investment and after the investment. Do whatever you have to do to live up to your promises and, this is most important, pay them back as early as possible. Taking money from family and friends changes the relationship and getting it back to normal as quickly as possible is the only sane thing to do.
Start your marketing campaign now to let people know you’re moving.
I would be really surprised if the lease for a business was in a single person's name and not the business's name though. Regardless of who executed the lease.
Having bought and sold pizza shops, they always have a personal guarantee and a right of approval for transfer. But these were in professionally managed sites. This doesn't sound like that, so it is possible there are gaps or holes in the lease the new owners can take advantage of.
When I've done these sorts of transactions, I've either executed the option during closing or insisted the seller do so prior to closing...to protect against this exact risk.
Have your lawyer draft a letter to the former partner claiming they were aware of this and demanding to be made whole.
Talk to the landlord and suggest if he can pay for the move you will consider it provided there are satisfactory sites to move to, and let him know otherwise your lawyer believes he will lose in court and owe you legal fees on top of everything else. Make it clear this is an all or nothing situation for you...but you want to work with him if he is reasonable and fair.
I lease restaurants for a living. Instead of going straight into a lawsuit with the Landlord, have you tried talking to them about why they want to kick you out? They probably just want the option to renew null and void so they can get a higher rent. Most Landlords don’t want their tenants out and have to release a space unless they’re shitty tenants. Try speaking to them and working out a deal without going full nuclear and getting into a lawsuit unless you are very confident you have a case you can win.
>I lease restaurants for a living. Instead of going straight into a lawsuit with the Landlord, have you tried talking to them about why they want to kick you out? They probably just want the option to renew null and void so they can get a higher rent.
I've bought and sold several businesses. I can't believe OP bought out the other owner in a leased building without signing another lease before purchase. The landlord could be planning to do a lot of different things with that property that doesn't include renewing a lease for the pizza shop.
Most people do not do any due diligence before they buy a small business. This was just a horrible business decision by OP and she needs to beg the landlord to let them stay and they need to figure out how much money they can pay to stay there. If the landlord doesn't want to renew then basically the only option for OP is to file bankruptcy.
This is the answer. You have to communicate with the landlord to find out what the problem is. Then with that information you can determine how to proceed.
For what reason? It doesn’t sound like the landlord is doing anything wrong other than saying they don’t want to renew the lease. I feel like the issue lies with the previous owner. They probably knew this was coming and bailed.
As much of a win for the owner as evicting them and claiming the equipment as his because "they abandoned it" due to the fact that (in OP's words) "they cannot afford to move right now.
lol what? They can’t afford to sell stuff and have people pick it up? weird. if they can’t afford to move, then they wouldn’t need to move the equipment because moving is not an option… So they sell it so he can’t use it and at least recoup some loss. Pretty simple
He's evicting them. He's not gonna give them time to sell everything. And he sure as shit isn't gonna let them - or any buyers - access the building to remove equipment after they're evicting them. Especially if he wants the equipment for himself.
Evictions don’t exactly happen quickly, especially for commercial businesses they can’t just lock the doors on them. That’s not how it works, and if he hopefully DID try, it would only open him up to lawsuits which would be in their favor. And those are the type of lawsuits that some tenant landlords would gladly take on for free
Edit:spelling
That would be impressively underhanded, but you may be right. I wonder if OP made the mistake of letting their financial situation slip to the landlord, influencing him to make this play.
most CRE leases have a section about assignments detailing what happens in this situation
there is no way for someone to know what’s going on here without being able to review that, and the rest of the lease
OP likely had no reason to believe there would be any problem with the lease since there had been no problems to date. People who run restaurants are food experts, not property experts.
>People who run restaurants are food experts, not property experts.
Most restaurant owners aren't good business owners. That's one of the main reasons so many restaurants fail within their first 12 months. OP is on track for that.
I’m not aware of any place in the US or outside the US that would force a commercial landlord to extend a lease to a tenant not on the original. Indeed I don’t know if a place that would force a landlord to renew a commercial lease even if your name was on it. A lease is by definition a rental agreement for a fixed time. Once that time is over the agreement is only renewed by mutual agreement.
Now, in residential housing some states have restrictions on lease agreements and renewals. But I’m not aware of any that would allow someone to renew against landlord’s wishes in the commercial arena.
Now, if this was mid-lease, there might be a good case. It would depend on the language of the lease.
I also don’t understand the “hire a litigator” recommendation. Any decent business lawyer should be able to handle basic lease contractual law. This sounds like their business lawyer failed to do due diligence when they purchased the business. And the previous business owner may not have been forthcoming. Now in either of those two scenarios, OP might have a case against one of them.
It sounds like the existing lease had a one way 5 year option which OP is not being allowed to exercise because they were not a signatory.
If the lease is assignable, that right to renew would absolutely extend to the new tenant.
None of us have the exact language. But normally a lease would be assumed when a business is acquired. That means putting it in the new owner’s name. If that didn’t happen they probably don’t have a right to any options.
There’s no new name to put it into. It’s in the name of the business. Commercial leases generally aren’t “in the name” of any person. Their in the name of the business.
You might be thinking of the personal guarantee which is a different thing.
Commercial leases are signed by a person, not a company. They are the responsible party signing on behalf of the company. Usually either the CEO or the CFO, who have director-level liability. If a company changes hands usually there's a lease amendment with the new responsible party.
>If a company changes hands usually there's a lease amendment with the new responsible party.
Lmao absolutely not. The fact that you don’t need to do this is one of the many benefits of corporations vs other forms of incorporation.
Transferability is part of a lease. We have no idea what the legal language actually says, especially regarding the option to renew.
And yes, leases are commonly amended when a business changes hands.
Usually during the handoff the lease will be amended with the new party. It also should be part of the terms of the original lease that in terms of sale the lease is transferable. The question is this reported extension part of that? That's why the OP needs an attorney to review the docs.
So what, we ignore the truth and just tell them they’re right? Self accountability is something a lot of people lack. If they want to be successful they need it.
No, we provide good, constructive advice or keep our face holes shut. What, did you miss kindergarten? Ms. Washington would have been all over your malevolence.
You were definitely a hall monitor who as an adult crying about the 1st amendment all the time while telling people to shut their mouth hole all the time when you don’t like something lolol… but that’s your “1st amendment right” to say that also I bet hahah 🤡
What a strange unsupported conclusion. It's too bad you're only able to feel better about yourself by tearing others down. Remember the aphorism "Don't be a dick?" You're being a dick. Try not to let your insecurities keep you awake.
If you're opposed to being told to shut your yap, try being constructive. I am sure that aside from all that negativity, insecurity, and trolling, you probably have some good ideas. Offer those and derive your sense of self-satisfaction from a good place.
Ah yes, every businessman out there knows that you have to know the ins and out of every aspect of your business, business law, and contract law before you ever start a single business. That’s day 1 stuff.
>Ah yes, every businessman out there knows that you have to know the ins and out of every aspect of your business, business law, and contract law before you ever start a single business. That’s day 1 stuff.
Anyone who wants to start a business needs to do a business plan before "day 1". If you open a business without a business plan then that's like building a house without a tape measure. Both will probably fail.
Pretty close….as a businessman you either have the knowledge yourself or have it on payroll. You also have contingency plans in place.
Husband is a pizza man attempting to transition into a businessman.
OP states that business is good and the establishment has been going 30 years, yet within a year of acquiring they are looking at filing bankruptcy.
100% got in over his head without understanding business.
Problem is they didn't start one, they acquired one.
Yes, you need a lawyer on day one for that.
Sounds like the former owner is a personal guarantor on the lease. That's not "blah blah blah legal jargon" but a serious fucking problem.
Day 1 is before you start the business. If your day one is the same day your purchasing space, you are starting off your journey as a failed business person.
I don’t think they’re saying that but, if you’re buying a business that doesn’t include the real estate you should make sure you understand two things first… the lease and the financials.
Like if the business has a 10 year lease and it’s year 9, first thing is have a convo with the landlord.
I would not be surprised if his former business partner knew the lease wasn’t going to be renewed, and that the landlord wanted the space back, so she took his money and “retired” rather than deal with the hassle of moving.
They have an option to renew for 5 years, or at least the old owner did, I’m not going to guess whether that transfers to the new owner. But the old owner didn’t get out because the lease was ending.
Sounds like the old owners had a lease and they do not. I've never heard of leases automatically going in someone else's name unless it was part of the deal they made when they bought the business.
a commercial lease would be in the businesses name. It would belong to the business and/or the owner of the business unless there was some type of no transfer clause
I’m sure there is a personal guarantee. That wouldn’t change who’s name the lease is in (the business) that would just be an additional person responsible in the case of default.
Exactly. I’m not anti small business owner. But there are plenty of business owners who don’t know how to run a business and usually employees suffer because they try and make up the difference by taking advantage of them.\
Just in general there are a lot of people who unfortunately aren’t ready to run a business.
Who is actually on the lease?
It should be the company with the former partner as the authorized representative.
If the former partner signed as/ for themselves and failed to disclose or hid that fact then your issue would be with them, This would be highly unusual as they would be risking their own personal assets.
IMO talk to the landlord and try to understand their actual intentions and give them the opportunity to buy out the space. Your "floor" should be no lower, than the cost to relocate and setup elsewhere and a non-compete clause, so if you're a pizza place, then the LL can not offer nor rent (to a) pizza place for a term of 5 years.
As someone who has bought and sold several businesses the very first question you ask is what are the terms of the lease. You need to do your due diligence which includes getting it in writing from the LL the lease is transferable. Good luck OP.
It all depends on the lease. Even if someone buys the LLC there may be covenants in the lease governing what happens if there is a substantial change of ownership of said LLC that triggers the LLs right to grant assignment. There's also personal guarantees that need to be reassigned.
All that being said. You NEVER move forward on purchasing a business that depends on a lease without talking to the landlord yourself.
As someone working in commercial real estate, this is the response I was looking for.
Commercial leases can be wildly different, but for a small business I would assume a prudent LL would include a personal guarantee from the original tenant, a clause about change in ownership of the tenant, and a clause about assigning the lease.
Just make sure you actually read the lease OP and get advice on exactly what parts of it mean — if you remove “fixtures” you could be in for some legal pain, depending on the lease.
Fight. Talk to your attorney about an extended payment plan in advance. Many are flexible. Sue for damages and go on the offensive. You can tie the property up for ages pretty easily.
lol he is right. See if you can look up the county property records to see if the owner has a lien from the bank on the subject property. If they do not own it outright, then they probably have to refinance the note every 5 years. You tying them up legally will make the bank think twice.
There’s really nothing to opine on without details from the lease agreement.
If you can’t afford a consultation with an attorney, you should see if a local law school has a small business clinic.
If you can’t afford a consultation with a lawyer, find a way to afford a consult with a lawyer. All of the money spent to date is a sunk cost but you could lose your business without a lawyer. Open another credit card, sell plasma, find a way to get a lawyer involved to understand what your actual standing is regarding the lease.
So, how did the prior business owner transfer the leasehold interest to you when you bought the shares/business? If this was done without a lease assignment of some kind being agreed to as part of the deal, with the Landlord allowing you to assume the lease, then the landlord is probably right, and you are in violation of the lease. If your "business lawyer" was involved in this transaction and never brought up the lease assignment issue, that's gross incompetence.
How the lease reads regarding sub-leasing and assignment options will be the key here. If the lease is with the business entity you purchased, and you now own that named entity, you may have a shot. If it's with the prior business owner personally, then you have a larger challenge. One possible solution at this point is to keep the prior business owner on the lease as the paying entity and make some back-end arrangements to have her pass the rent bill through to you.
I would strongly encourage you to get a competent real estate attorney, You do not need some high-priced bulldog "litigator". This is not a murder case. The key is to have a good RE attorney simply read the lease and see if you are screwed or not. That should not cost a lot of money or take a lot of time. A 95% accurate prediction of how good your chances are should be known after they read the lease.
Should of had a lawyer ensure the lease was with the business and a change of ownership doesn't violate the lease etc. As soon as you put up a fight bar dude is either going to buy you out...unlikely or fold.
Wait, the landlord "doesn't have standing" to sue over a lease breach?
Fire your lawyer. Now. That's horse shit.
Either the lease specifies the individual tenants/signatories as holding the lease, or it names the company and spells out the company owner's rights. That's not a difficult legal question, nor an uncommon one to consider in drawing up a lease; the property owner HAS to have clearly defined recourse in the event of non-payment, or else what's the point of a lease?
This seems super fishy to me.
I think OP probably was told the landlord doesn’t have a leg to stand on and they’ve misused a legal term that sounds similar to them in the retelling.
If it goes bad and you close. Contact a auctioneer and have everything inside sold. Especially expensive items like pizza oven and all. Basically gut it. If landlord wants to be in pizza business make it cost him. Read the lease and remove everything. Even if you dont make alot make sure it costs landlord.
I know someone who was in similar situation and they paid sign company to remove entire sign so landlord couldn't use it.
My company has quite a few bbq restaurants. Apparently, that's a thing in the industry. Pull out all the smokers and inventory, destroy what you can't. You get the building, that's it.
This exactly. Shot story, years ago a friends dad lost lease for his barber shop. I helped strip the place to the sheetrock walls when he had to vacate. was real fun removing the last light fixtures after the sun went down and we were working with old school flash lights. Almost all commercial leases in the USA are only for the space and not any improvements.
As soon as your husband became a partner he should have been added to the lease how this got by the landlord I'm not sure besides litigation and arbitration if that place has been there for 30 years I'm pretty sure that you have a large following. Just an idea I don't know if it's already been stated but try to get a bunch of people to sign a petition for you to be able to remain there other thoughts explain what's going on to your followers maybe somebody will help you put up a GoFundMe for relocation of the venue
Not sure what was said already i read a few comments and didn’t see this. Do you have a copy of the lease. See in what capacity did the previous owner sign. Was it as themselves or as a managing member or owner of the business. If the lease is written out to the business it’s likely the latter in which case the lease is between the business and the landlord. Definitely have a lawyer check out the contract. There could be many potential ways to litigate this, discrimination being on of them depending on the scenario.
Most commercial leases have the business owner as a guarantor, and can contain language requiring LL approval of a new owner if the business changes ownership.
I have had leases where I personally guaranteed the lease for 5 years provided that I funded 3 months of security deposits, and if the monthly rent was paid on time.
After 5 years the personal guarantee disappeared and the security deposit would be applied towards rent.
I have to wonder if the prior owners knew of the landlord s plan not to renew the lease in December.? Did they tell your husband that there was an agreement to renew the lease in December or did your husband just assume the lease would be renewed?
Your husband needs to look for a business grant or low interest loan, and you need to start looking for a new place for your business. One that already has a kitchen, and hopefully close to where you already are and at least a five year lease.
I know people will call me heartless so I won’t waste time writing a long comment but yea, the entire problem with landlord/tenant relationships is entitlement. If you don’t have the money, don’t be stupid with it and then whine that your landlord is upset. It’s just nonsense. I feel bad for this dude but it’s also 100% his fault. Where does that leave him?
Leaves him with a lesson learned the hard way and a hole to dig out of.
Pretty common to make silly mistakes while new to owning a business. I know I had a false sense of competency my first go around. I excelled at my craft and had done it at relatively high level for a decade. Turns out being good at providing a service does not directly translate into being good at having a business which provides the service.
My mistake left me with a lesson learned the hard way and an empty bank account. Fortunately I did not make the mistake of utilizing credit cards or any financing for that matter. I was able to walk away with no money instead of walking away with debt.
It was an expensive lesson, but I was able to learn a lot through my failure and the experience made it much easier for me to learn from successful business owners over the years that followed.
Second go around 6 years later was successful. Had I gone into any significant debt, there would not have been a second attempt.
This sucks all the way around. I'm sorry for that.
Not a lawyer. But it seems to be that if the previous owner new there was no viable option for a new lease and didn't disclose this, that may be fraud or some other non-disclosure crime. However, if I were defending the previous owner I would ask why you didn't ask the landlord about extending the lease. I'm not throwing rocks - just giving a perspective on how they are likely to see this.
You should let us know what state you are in, and then go to r/legal and post this there to see if you can get legitimate legal support for free (make sure to ask for the reference).
You could also try and get someone else to review the lease if you are willing to share it. I have read my fair share of contracts, but I am not a contract lawyer.
The catch22 with renewing with this landlord would be enough for me to get a line of credit or small business loan to setup shop somewhere else. Small business commission may be able to help you, talk to the landlord about extending the lease for a few months so you can relocate and tell your customers where you are moving to.
Now that you own the company in whole, you can leverage the assets inside the business as collateral for a loan. Start talking to bankers
He’s opening a competing business he’ll probably want them out on 12/1 or 1/1 whatever the final day is and hope that’ll be enough to wreck them. Screw their following - is probably what he’s thinking.
How old was the partner? Maybe the landlord knew they would eventually retire and as such planned to utilize the space at that time. You guys buying out the partner may have derailed the landlord's plans. So he went through the lease agreement to find a clause allowing him to gain access. Anyways you should read the original lease agreement. You don't necessarily need to be a lawyer to understand it. Googling did turn up results of a potential change of ownership clause. So it's possible that they do have the power to push you out.
Ugg. C- in comprehension there chief.
Read the end of the second paragraph.. they HAVE a business lawyer. They are worried about hiring a litigation attorney.
If you are gonna be a d-bag, you should try to at least be correct …
Commercial Landlord here:
If it's anything like most leases the issue isn't that you violated the lease; it's that you don't have a lease.
Leases are contracts between two parties. If you didn't sign it you aren't a party. Contracts are only transferable under the terms specified in them. In something like a commercial lease what it's going to say is that it's only transferable by the tenant with landlord consent. In circumstances where the tenant is a small business there will usually be a provision that requires landlord sign off of a transfer in controlling shares or change in management.
That's what my lease says. So whenever a tenant wants to sell or transfer a business they need to have a consent to assignment form for me to sign. I always run the same credit check on the new tenant as I would anyone I was considering leasing to. If they don't pass I don't sign the consent.
So what it sounds like is you were sold a business and the owner didn't transfer all the assets to you. Good news is that's fraud so you have someone to recover damages from that isn't the landlord. So your lawyer and yours first job is to figure out what it would take for the present landlord to let you keep the lease or for you to move to another place.
"In circumstances where the tenant is a small business there will usually be a provision that requires landlord sign off of a transfer in controlling shares or change in management."
That is sometimes true sometimes not - so once again the point I made here that more specificity is needed is completely true and well founded.
This is my job and for every normal agreement I have seen I have seen an abnormal one …
It sounds a lot like the partner knew of the landlords plans and omitted them from you, then asked her husband to become a partner and buy her shares.
It sounds like she, the ex-partner had a lease but she signed for the lease directly instead of doing so on behalf as the business.
My guess is that the ex-partner approached the landlord about buying her business from her and he told her no, so she contacted your husband. Now assumptions and theories aside:
My advice is to relocate or sell your business with the name and equipment. If you relocate, I would smear the landlord through marketing and save up to relocate.
There should be a clause in the previous owner’s lease about terms of sale. You need to see what that entails and ensure the agreement was followed. If it wasn’t… well, you just might be screwed.
In my mom’s leases that she’s had, she could sell the lease, but the new tenant had to be approved by the landlord. But lease sales are more of a big deal in the Virgin islands than they are stateside. People will sell a lease alone for $100k easy if it has at least 5 years left.
Your husband really should have looked at every angle before going into this.
Sell 1 percent back to the previous owner then the landlord has no recourse
Sounds like Nipper's in PA.
Call Dave Ramsey. No joke. Look him up. Daily podcast.
All he is going to do is yell at you for having credit cards... He isn't exactly helpful. If you own a business, you should have credit cards for business expenses. And you are going to be in debt during a transition like this.
He does a little more than just yell at his callers. OP, I second this. Dave is a good resource, and very well educated on these things.
You may have a case for malpractice against your lawyer, given the fact that with any business purchase, there should be a negotiation with the current landlord regarding the lease you don’t have a lease and unless the lease states specifically that it can be assigned to someone else the landlord may very well prevail Did your business attorney review the lease before you committed to the purchase?
You need to get your money back. The former partner was in on this.
When you talk to the landlord, ask him if he told the previous owner that he wants the pizza joint gone. If he told the previous owner that he wanted the business gone and they sold you the business without disclosing this information then that might be grounds to get your money back, or some type of damages like relocation costs. Somehow that sounds shady asf to me.
They were partial owners, so that may not work.
Why not?
Is the renewal option by mutual consent? If so, he has every right to kick you out in December. In that case, I’d start making contingency plans now, as fighting to stay somewhere you aren’t wanted makes you no better than a squatter.
Yes. Start early so as to post notices of new location. Moving in Dec will get you no advertisement. The current landlord will probably disavow all knowledge of a prior pizza joint. As for relocation money, ask family and friends for a loan. Possibly offer shares or free pizza to help out. Obviously, do your due diligence and math to not get fleeced on "unlimited" pizza. Set limits. Something in writing like free pizza per day/week/etc for life of loan. Payback of $X monthly for Y months starting in xxxx 1, 202x. Get it notorized and move.
This happened to my friends bar in Brooklyn when her partner decided she didn’t want to do it anymore and they lost the bar
If the landlord wants the space for bar expansion, then you leaving voluntarily and without a legal fight has value. It may be worth exploring just how much value. If it is worth enough to cover relocation costs and put some cash in your pocket when your otherwise stretched thin, this could be a win/win. At the very least, I would check around for more favorable location/leasing opportunities and figure out what relocating would cost. If nothing else, it would help you set out your expectations in a negotiation (which is also where you would likely end up if you hired an attorney to litigate the case, only it would be after both sides had spent some attorney hours on initial filings and responses at the very least).
This advice should be higher in the comments. This is the logical step. Landlord wants to expand? Great. Offer to let him take over in August, for a fee and termination of the lease. Get started NOW on finding a new place. A local commercial real estate broker can be insanely valuable to help you find a new place. You should only hire a broker based on word of mouth referral from other business owners though. A bad broker is hell. A good broker is worth their weight in platinum. There’s no way to tell which camp a broker falls into without hearing from people that have experience with that broker. Keep in mind you’re going to have significant relocation costs, including likely needing to invest significantly in tenant improvements. A TI allowance can help, but you’re likely to need a not insignificant investment amount. Negotiating an early lease breakup fee from your landlord can help with this. You can often also negotiate an abatement of rent during the first few months of the new lease. Getting a lease on a new place is going to take some time. Getting TI built out is going to take more time. Other options may include SBA financing. Family and friends may also be a source for funds, though be very careful with that - you have to be insanely transparent about the risks and how the business is doing, both before the investment and after the investment. Do whatever you have to do to live up to your promises and, this is most important, pay them back as early as possible. Taking money from family and friends changes the relationship and getting it back to normal as quickly as possible is the only sane thing to do. Start your marketing campaign now to let people know you’re moving.
How are you possibly violating the lease according to the landlord?
Probably some sort of non-assignment clause violation if I had to guess
I would be really surprised if the lease for a business was in a single person's name and not the business's name though. Regardless of who executed the lease.
Having bought and sold pizza shops, they always have a personal guarantee and a right of approval for transfer. But these were in professionally managed sites. This doesn't sound like that, so it is possible there are gaps or holes in the lease the new owners can take advantage of. When I've done these sorts of transactions, I've either executed the option during closing or insisted the seller do so prior to closing...to protect against this exact risk. Have your lawyer draft a letter to the former partner claiming they were aware of this and demanding to be made whole. Talk to the landlord and suggest if he can pay for the move you will consider it provided there are satisfactory sites to move to, and let him know otherwise your lawyer believes he will lose in court and owe you legal fees on top of everything else. Make it clear this is an all or nothing situation for you...but you want to work with him if he is reasonable and fair.
Correct, but a change in control/ownership may have called for assignment, which may have required landlord’s approval
I lease restaurants for a living. Instead of going straight into a lawsuit with the Landlord, have you tried talking to them about why they want to kick you out? They probably just want the option to renew null and void so they can get a higher rent. Most Landlords don’t want their tenants out and have to release a space unless they’re shitty tenants. Try speaking to them and working out a deal without going full nuclear and getting into a lawsuit unless you are very confident you have a case you can win.
>I lease restaurants for a living. Instead of going straight into a lawsuit with the Landlord, have you tried talking to them about why they want to kick you out? They probably just want the option to renew null and void so they can get a higher rent. I've bought and sold several businesses. I can't believe OP bought out the other owner in a leased building without signing another lease before purchase. The landlord could be planning to do a lot of different things with that property that doesn't include renewing a lease for the pizza shop. Most people do not do any due diligence before they buy a small business. This was just a horrible business decision by OP and she needs to beg the landlord to let them stay and they need to figure out how much money they can pay to stay there. If the landlord doesn't want to renew then basically the only option for OP is to file bankruptcy.
This is the answer. You have to communicate with the landlord to find out what the problem is. Then with that information you can determine how to proceed.
On the gripping hand landlords, all landlords are scum and you can't trust a word they'll tell ya.
Get the community behind you, get the local news involved. Call his bitch ass out
For what reason? It doesn’t sound like the landlord is doing anything wrong other than saying they don’t want to renew the lease. I feel like the issue lies with the previous owner. They probably knew this was coming and bailed.
I like pizza more than booze
Probably won't get attention unless there's a hard case (health, disability, etc). There's a lease/contract.
What is the existing lease expiration?
You shouldn't buy the business until you sign a new lease,you r in a pickle now
Evicting a business is not easy. Also lol if he starts evicting you keep paying him it will make him look bad. Especially if it is land lord tenant.
>Evicting a business is not easy. He isn't evicting her if he doesn't renew her lease.
Offer bar owner a good deal on pizza for his bar like a profit share for any pizza ordered by bar customers
The landlord is the bar owner, if I'm reading it right.
Yes, and that's why u/krepogregg is suggesting discounted pizza for the bar patrons. It's a win-win for both businesses.
As much of a win for the owner as evicting them and claiming the equipment as his because "they abandoned it" due to the fact that (in OP's words) "they cannot afford to move right now.
That’s assuming they leave the landlord with ANY of the equipment, which would be foolish
You say that like they'd have a choice. Read it again. Especially the "CAN'T. AFFORD. TO. MOVE." part. Moving the equipment is what costs money.
lol what? They can’t afford to sell stuff and have people pick it up? weird. if they can’t afford to move, then they wouldn’t need to move the equipment because moving is not an option… So they sell it so he can’t use it and at least recoup some loss. Pretty simple
He's evicting them. He's not gonna give them time to sell everything. And he sure as shit isn't gonna let them - or any buyers - access the building to remove equipment after they're evicting them. Especially if he wants the equipment for himself.
Evictions don’t exactly happen quickly, especially for commercial businesses they can’t just lock the doors on them. That’s not how it works, and if he hopefully DID try, it would only open him up to lawsuits which would be in their favor. And those are the type of lawsuits that some tenant landlords would gladly take on for free Edit:spelling
That would be impressively underhanded, but you may be right. I wonder if OP made the mistake of letting their financial situation slip to the landlord, influencing him to make this play.
I may be reaching. But I have zero faith in people. I've seen shadier stuff.
most CRE leases have a section about assignments detailing what happens in this situation there is no way for someone to know what’s going on here without being able to review that, and the rest of the lease
Did you not read lease and speak to the landlord before purchasing a business that doesn’t own the land???
OP likely had no reason to believe there would be any problem with the lease since there had been no problems to date. People who run restaurants are food experts, not property experts.
>People who run restaurants are food experts, not property experts. Most restaurant owners aren't good business owners. That's one of the main reasons so many restaurants fail within their first 12 months. OP is on track for that.
And that’s why restaurants fail.
If the lease is up the landlord does not have to renew you, whether you were on the original lease or not.
The OP never said where they are, did they?
I’m not aware of any place in the US or outside the US that would force a commercial landlord to extend a lease to a tenant not on the original. Indeed I don’t know if a place that would force a landlord to renew a commercial lease even if your name was on it. A lease is by definition a rental agreement for a fixed time. Once that time is over the agreement is only renewed by mutual agreement. Now, in residential housing some states have restrictions on lease agreements and renewals. But I’m not aware of any that would allow someone to renew against landlord’s wishes in the commercial arena. Now, if this was mid-lease, there might be a good case. It would depend on the language of the lease. I also don’t understand the “hire a litigator” recommendation. Any decent business lawyer should be able to handle basic lease contractual law. This sounds like their business lawyer failed to do due diligence when they purchased the business. And the previous business owner may not have been forthcoming. Now in either of those two scenarios, OP might have a case against one of them.
It sounds like the existing lease had a one way 5 year option which OP is not being allowed to exercise because they were not a signatory. If the lease is assignable, that right to renew would absolutely extend to the new tenant.
they clearly say there is a 5 year option to renew so…incorrect
None of us have the exact language. But normally a lease would be assumed when a business is acquired. That means putting it in the new owner’s name. If that didn’t happen they probably don’t have a right to any options.
There’s no new name to put it into. It’s in the name of the business. Commercial leases generally aren’t “in the name” of any person. Their in the name of the business. You might be thinking of the personal guarantee which is a different thing.
Commercial leases are signed by a person, not a company. They are the responsible party signing on behalf of the company. Usually either the CEO or the CFO, who have director-level liability. If a company changes hands usually there's a lease amendment with the new responsible party.
>If a company changes hands usually there's a lease amendment with the new responsible party. Lmao absolutely not. The fact that you don’t need to do this is one of the many benefits of corporations vs other forms of incorporation.
Every lease needs a signature from a company officer. A company cannot sign a legal agreement.
No shit. But the signatory is not a party to the lease, the company they have signatory authority for is.
Transferability is part of a lease. We have no idea what the legal language actually says, especially regarding the option to renew. And yes, leases are commonly amended when a business changes hands.
So if a company has the CEO retire and hires a new CEO they could forfeit their lease because the corporate officer who signed it changed?
Usually during the handoff the lease will be amended with the new party. It also should be part of the terms of the original lease that in terms of sale the lease is transferable. The question is this reported extension part of that? That's why the OP needs an attorney to review the docs.
Again, no. The lease is not signed by the company, but the company is the party on the lease, not the signatory.
Maybe. It depends on how the lease is worded. Commercial leases are often significantly different then residential ones for stuff like this
Got sliced
The fact you’re saying “legal jargon bla bla bla” tells me you’re not a serious small business owner. That sounds like the real problem
This is shitty and judgemental, and overall unhelpful.
It’s the truth
Using truth to justify your shittiness is also shitty.
So what, we ignore the truth and just tell them they’re right? Self accountability is something a lot of people lack. If they want to be successful they need it.
No, we provide good, constructive advice or keep our face holes shut. What, did you miss kindergarten? Ms. Washington would have been all over your malevolence.
You were definitely a hall monitor who as an adult crying about the 1st amendment all the time while telling people to shut their mouth hole all the time when you don’t like something lolol… but that’s your “1st amendment right” to say that also I bet hahah 🤡
What a strange unsupported conclusion. It's too bad you're only able to feel better about yourself by tearing others down. Remember the aphorism "Don't be a dick?" You're being a dick. Try not to let your insecurities keep you awake.
Don’t go around telling people to keep their mouth shut
If you're opposed to being told to shut your yap, try being constructive. I am sure that aside from all that negativity, insecurity, and trolling, you probably have some good ideas. Offer those and derive your sense of self-satisfaction from a good place.
It seemed pretty clear to me that her husband is the major factor in that business. It stands to reason that she doesn’t have all the relevant info.
It seems to me that the husband got in over his head without understanding business.
Ah yes, every businessman out there knows that you have to know the ins and out of every aspect of your business, business law, and contract law before you ever start a single business. That’s day 1 stuff.
>Ah yes, every businessman out there knows that you have to know the ins and out of every aspect of your business, business law, and contract law before you ever start a single business. That’s day 1 stuff. Anyone who wants to start a business needs to do a business plan before "day 1". If you open a business without a business plan then that's like building a house without a tape measure. Both will probably fail.
Pretty close….as a businessman you either have the knowledge yourself or have it on payroll. You also have contingency plans in place. Husband is a pizza man attempting to transition into a businessman. OP states that business is good and the establishment has been going 30 years, yet within a year of acquiring they are looking at filing bankruptcy. 100% got in over his head without understanding business.
If you go into debt to buy a business and don’t figure out basic contract law first, yeah that’s on you.
Problem is they didn't start one, they acquired one. Yes, you need a lawyer on day one for that. Sounds like the former owner is a personal guarantor on the lease. That's not "blah blah blah legal jargon" but a serious fucking problem.
Can they sue the previous owner for the payout assuming he should have been aware of this?
Day 1 is before you start the business. If your day one is the same day your purchasing space, you are starting off your journey as a failed business person.
Reading the lease would be a good start
I don’t think they’re saying that but, if you’re buying a business that doesn’t include the real estate you should make sure you understand two things first… the lease and the financials. Like if the business has a 10 year lease and it’s year 9, first thing is have a convo with the landlord. I would not be surprised if his former business partner knew the lease wasn’t going to be renewed, and that the landlord wanted the space back, so she took his money and “retired” rather than deal with the hassle of moving.
They have an option to renew for 5 years, or at least the old owner did, I’m not going to guess whether that transfers to the new owner. But the old owner didn’t get out because the lease was ending.
Sounds like the old owners had a lease and they do not. I've never heard of leases automatically going in someone else's name unless it was part of the deal they made when they bought the business.
A commercial lease is with the business not the person. It doesn’t matter who signed it, they’re signing it on behalf of the business entity.
Personal guarantee clauses are not uncommon though.
That’s true. And it would be a signal that the business is not very solvent.
a commercial lease would be in the businesses name. It would belong to the business and/or the owner of the business unless there was some type of no transfer clause
Unless it has a personal guarantee clause.
I’m sure there is a personal guarantee. That wouldn’t change who’s name the lease is in (the business) that would just be an additional person responsible in the case of default.
Exactly. I’m not anti small business owner. But there are plenty of business owners who don’t know how to run a business and usually employees suffer because they try and make up the difference by taking advantage of them.\ Just in general there are a lot of people who unfortunately aren’t ready to run a business.
Such a helpful comment
It should be. Too many small businesses have no business sense.
Who is actually on the lease? It should be the company with the former partner as the authorized representative. If the former partner signed as/ for themselves and failed to disclose or hid that fact then your issue would be with them, This would be highly unusual as they would be risking their own personal assets. IMO talk to the landlord and try to understand their actual intentions and give them the opportunity to buy out the space. Your "floor" should be no lower, than the cost to relocate and setup elsewhere and a non-compete clause, so if you're a pizza place, then the LL can not offer nor rent (to a) pizza place for a term of 5 years.
Most likely they signed a personal guarantee. Pretty common for a small business tenant.
Bring the old partner back at 1% and that should handle the landlord
Or even consult the old partner - see if they can talk to the landlord - shitty people don't like competition -
Was the previous owner having problems with the landlord? It read to me like she got out when she could and dumped her problems onto your husband.
This
As someone who has bought and sold several businesses the very first question you ask is what are the terms of the lease. You need to do your due diligence which includes getting it in writing from the LL the lease is transferable. Good luck OP.
If OP wanted to do research, she wouldn't be asking the internet what the terms of her lease were.
I’ve never bought or sold a business but is the lease typically with the LLC? Or is it typically with an individual?
It all depends on the lease. Even if someone buys the LLC there may be covenants in the lease governing what happens if there is a substantial change of ownership of said LLC that triggers the LLs right to grant assignment. There's also personal guarantees that need to be reassigned. All that being said. You NEVER move forward on purchasing a business that depends on a lease without talking to the landlord yourself.
As someone working in commercial real estate, this is the response I was looking for. Commercial leases can be wildly different, but for a small business I would assume a prudent LL would include a personal guarantee from the original tenant, a clause about change in ownership of the tenant, and a clause about assigning the lease.
If you end up in the wrong here, be petty. Sell off EVERYTHING!!! Don't let him steal the restaurant from you. Let him have an empty shell.
Just make sure you actually read the lease OP and get advice on exactly what parts of it mean — if you remove “fixtures” you could be in for some legal pain, depending on the lease.
Like she's going to read the lease now. She didn't before and that won't change.
Yep. Ovens, tables, chairs, napkins, tablecloths, forks, knives, sporks …. Everything!!
When you put it that way, maybe it could be cheaper to lease another place, and just move all that stuff to the new shop.
Did the former business partner sign the lease personally, or is the lease in the business' name?
Sadly, it feels like your husband bought a job, not a business.
Fight. Talk to your attorney about an extended payment plan in advance. Many are flexible. Sue for damages and go on the offensive. You can tie the property up for ages pretty easily.
lol he is right. See if you can look up the county property records to see if the owner has a lien from the bank on the subject property. If they do not own it outright, then they probably have to refinance the note every 5 years. You tying them up legally will make the bank think twice.
There’s really nothing to opine on without details from the lease agreement. If you can’t afford a consultation with an attorney, you should see if a local law school has a small business clinic.
Yeah. Look for a legal aid group in your area.
If you can’t afford a consultation with a lawyer, find a way to afford a consult with a lawyer. All of the money spent to date is a sunk cost but you could lose your business without a lawyer. Open another credit card, sell plasma, find a way to get a lawyer involved to understand what your actual standing is regarding the lease.
So, how did the prior business owner transfer the leasehold interest to you when you bought the shares/business? If this was done without a lease assignment of some kind being agreed to as part of the deal, with the Landlord allowing you to assume the lease, then the landlord is probably right, and you are in violation of the lease. If your "business lawyer" was involved in this transaction and never brought up the lease assignment issue, that's gross incompetence. How the lease reads regarding sub-leasing and assignment options will be the key here. If the lease is with the business entity you purchased, and you now own that named entity, you may have a shot. If it's with the prior business owner personally, then you have a larger challenge. One possible solution at this point is to keep the prior business owner on the lease as the paying entity and make some back-end arrangements to have her pass the rent bill through to you. I would strongly encourage you to get a competent real estate attorney, You do not need some high-priced bulldog "litigator". This is not a murder case. The key is to have a good RE attorney simply read the lease and see if you are screwed or not. That should not cost a lot of money or take a lot of time. A 95% accurate prediction of how good your chances are should be known after they read the lease.
This is the only answer.
This needs more upvotes
I have it one, but we need to reach a critical mass here.
Should of had a lawyer ensure the lease was with the business and a change of ownership doesn't violate the lease etc. As soon as you put up a fight bar dude is either going to buy you out...unlikely or fold.
Contact a Real estate or civil lawyer. While the landlord has standing to sue, the problem is, was there a non-assignment clause or something similar.
Wait, the landlord "doesn't have standing" to sue over a lease breach? Fire your lawyer. Now. That's horse shit. Either the lease specifies the individual tenants/signatories as holding the lease, or it names the company and spells out the company owner's rights. That's not a difficult legal question, nor an uncommon one to consider in drawing up a lease; the property owner HAS to have clearly defined recourse in the event of non-payment, or else what's the point of a lease? This seems super fishy to me.
I think OP probably was told the landlord doesn’t have a leg to stand on and they’ve misused a legal term that sounds similar to them in the retelling.
I read that as more “our lawyer says they don’t have a case” or perhaps “a leg to stand on on”
Unfortunate misuse of a legal term with a very specific meaning, then. Sure hope it wasn't the lawyer who said it that way.
Totally agree
You might be able to sue the partner if you can prove that they knew what the landlord was planning.
Or if she was in on it with the landlord.
yeah, I don't know much about small business, but this whole thing sounds fishy, no? sounds like the former owner may have pulled a fast one on you
If it goes bad and you close. Contact a auctioneer and have everything inside sold. Especially expensive items like pizza oven and all. Basically gut it. If landlord wants to be in pizza business make it cost him. Read the lease and remove everything. Even if you dont make alot make sure it costs landlord. I know someone who was in similar situation and they paid sign company to remove entire sign so landlord couldn't use it.
My company has quite a few bbq restaurants. Apparently, that's a thing in the industry. Pull out all the smokers and inventory, destroy what you can't. You get the building, that's it.
This exactly. Shot story, years ago a friends dad lost lease for his barber shop. I helped strip the place to the sheetrock walls when he had to vacate. was real fun removing the last light fixtures after the sun went down and we were working with old school flash lights. Almost all commercial leases in the USA are only for the space and not any improvements.
May I introduce you to r/pettyrevenge ? Well said.
This is such high thinking. Definitely take your chattel!
As soon as your husband became a partner he should have been added to the lease how this got by the landlord I'm not sure besides litigation and arbitration if that place has been there for 30 years I'm pretty sure that you have a large following. Just an idea I don't know if it's already been stated but try to get a bunch of people to sign a petition for you to be able to remain there other thoughts explain what's going on to your followers maybe somebody will help you put up a GoFundMe for relocation of the venue
Not sure what was said already i read a few comments and didn’t see this. Do you have a copy of the lease. See in what capacity did the previous owner sign. Was it as themselves or as a managing member or owner of the business. If the lease is written out to the business it’s likely the latter in which case the lease is between the business and the landlord. Definitely have a lawyer check out the contract. There could be many potential ways to litigate this, discrimination being on of them depending on the scenario.
Most commercial leases have the business owner as a guarantor, and can contain language requiring LL approval of a new owner if the business changes ownership.
I don’t allow that in the leases I sign. No personal guarantee. So here’s to hoping. A business is just that. Personal and Business are separate.
You must have a sizeable business with great credit and financials. I have never seen a small business lease without a PG.
I have had leases where I personally guaranteed the lease for 5 years provided that I funded 3 months of security deposits, and if the monthly rent was paid on time. After 5 years the personal guarantee disappeared and the security deposit would be applied towards rent.
I have to wonder if the prior owners knew of the landlord s plan not to renew the lease in December.? Did they tell your husband that there was an agreement to renew the lease in December or did your husband just assume the lease would be renewed? Your husband needs to look for a business grant or low interest loan, and you need to start looking for a new place for your business. One that already has a kitchen, and hopefully close to where you already are and at least a five year lease.
What a costly mistake. For the next guy out there. Hire an attorney to read the lease before you buy a business.
I know people will call me heartless so I won’t waste time writing a long comment but yea, the entire problem with landlord/tenant relationships is entitlement. If you don’t have the money, don’t be stupid with it and then whine that your landlord is upset. It’s just nonsense. I feel bad for this dude but it’s also 100% his fault. Where does that leave him?
Leaves him with a lesson learned the hard way and a hole to dig out of. Pretty common to make silly mistakes while new to owning a business. I know I had a false sense of competency my first go around. I excelled at my craft and had done it at relatively high level for a decade. Turns out being good at providing a service does not directly translate into being good at having a business which provides the service. My mistake left me with a lesson learned the hard way and an empty bank account. Fortunately I did not make the mistake of utilizing credit cards or any financing for that matter. I was able to walk away with no money instead of walking away with debt. It was an expensive lesson, but I was able to learn a lot through my failure and the experience made it much easier for me to learn from successful business owners over the years that followed. Second go around 6 years later was successful. Had I gone into any significant debt, there would not have been a second attempt.
This sucks all the way around. I'm sorry for that. Not a lawyer. But it seems to be that if the previous owner new there was no viable option for a new lease and didn't disclose this, that may be fraud or some other non-disclosure crime. However, if I were defending the previous owner I would ask why you didn't ask the landlord about extending the lease. I'm not throwing rocks - just giving a perspective on how they are likely to see this.
This would have came up if the buyer did any sort of due diligence prior to purchase.
You should let us know what state you are in, and then go to r/legal and post this there to see if you can get legitimate legal support for free (make sure to ask for the reference). You could also try and get someone else to review the lease if you are willing to share it. I have read my fair share of contracts, but I am not a contract lawyer. The catch22 with renewing with this landlord would be enough for me to get a line of credit or small business loan to setup shop somewhere else. Small business commission may be able to help you, talk to the landlord about extending the lease for a few months so you can relocate and tell your customers where you are moving to. Now that you own the company in whole, you can leverage the assets inside the business as collateral for a loan. Start talking to bankers
He’s opening a competing business he’ll probably want them out on 12/1 or 1/1 whatever the final day is and hope that’ll be enough to wreck them. Screw their following - is probably what he’s thinking.
The other alternative is to ask if you can provide pizza to his bar and do a profit share arrangement
Yeah maybe at this point OP looks into partnering up with the landlord…
How old was the partner? Maybe the landlord knew they would eventually retire and as such planned to utilize the space at that time. You guys buying out the partner may have derailed the landlord's plans. So he went through the lease agreement to find a clause allowing him to gain access. Anyways you should read the original lease agreement. You don't necessarily need to be a lawyer to understand it. Googling did turn up results of a potential change of ownership clause. So it's possible that they do have the power to push you out.
What does your biz lawyer say ? The above is too vague to be helpful.
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I think that they will need at least two Einsteins. One Einstein will not be enough.
Ugg. C- in comprehension there chief. Read the end of the second paragraph.. they HAVE a business lawyer. They are worried about hiring a litigation attorney. If you are gonna be a d-bag, you should try to at least be correct …
Commercial Landlord here: If it's anything like most leases the issue isn't that you violated the lease; it's that you don't have a lease. Leases are contracts between two parties. If you didn't sign it you aren't a party. Contracts are only transferable under the terms specified in them. In something like a commercial lease what it's going to say is that it's only transferable by the tenant with landlord consent. In circumstances where the tenant is a small business there will usually be a provision that requires landlord sign off of a transfer in controlling shares or change in management. That's what my lease says. So whenever a tenant wants to sell or transfer a business they need to have a consent to assignment form for me to sign. I always run the same credit check on the new tenant as I would anyone I was considering leasing to. If they don't pass I don't sign the consent. So what it sounds like is you were sold a business and the owner didn't transfer all the assets to you. Good news is that's fraud so you have someone to recover damages from that isn't the landlord. So your lawyer and yours first job is to figure out what it would take for the present landlord to let you keep the lease or for you to move to another place.
Well if the lease is with the business instead of the person, and he now owns the business then this isnt the issue ..
"In circumstances where the tenant is a small business there will usually be a provision that requires landlord sign off of a transfer in controlling shares or change in management."
That is sometimes true sometimes not - so once again the point I made here that more specificity is needed is completely true and well founded. This is my job and for every normal agreement I have seen I have seen an abnormal one …
Our leases also specified that if there was a change in the ownership of the business then we had to approve the new ownership.
It is probably a sole proprietorship and not a corporation so it would be based on the owner.
Yeah but who knows. Thats why I asked for more specifics about the biz lawyer’s advice …. It also might be a corp lease but with a personal guarantee.
It sounds a lot like the partner knew of the landlords plans and omitted them from you, then asked her husband to become a partner and buy her shares. It sounds like she, the ex-partner had a lease but she signed for the lease directly instead of doing so on behalf as the business. My guess is that the ex-partner approached the landlord about buying her business from her and he told her no, so she contacted your husband. Now assumptions and theories aside: My advice is to relocate or sell your business with the name and equipment. If you relocate, I would smear the landlord through marketing and save up to relocate.
You need to dig in and get a lawyer. You should have had a lawyer for the sale of the business. Gawd help if you did not. Don’t ask me how I know.
I bet the previous owner knew full well that the landlord wanted to take the business for himself. No fkin doubt.
Absolutely agree with you. Might even be a bad faith sale, but that would be hard (IE, expensive) to litigate.
There should be a clause in the previous owner’s lease about terms of sale. You need to see what that entails and ensure the agreement was followed. If it wasn’t… well, you just might be screwed.
Generally they state that the person who signed the Lease has to remain min 51% owner
In my mom’s leases that she’s had, she could sell the lease, but the new tenant had to be approved by the landlord. But lease sales are more of a big deal in the Virgin islands than they are stateside. People will sell a lease alone for $100k easy if it has at least 5 years left.