{"id":31937,"date":"2023-10-19T16:03:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T16:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/news\/a-new-york-city-law-may-punish-commercial-landlords-who-behave-badly\/"},"modified":"2023-10-19T16:03:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T16:03:09","slug":"a-new-york-city-law-may-punish-commercial-landlords-who-behave-badly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937","title":{"rendered":"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord will deliver the space pretty much as is, or with certain limited work completed. Then it\u2019s up to the tenant to build out the space so it meets their needs.<\/p>\n

In that process, the tenant wants to make sure it can change its plans if necessary as it rethinks how it will use the space. At the same time, the landlord wants to make sure the tenant doesn\u2019t do anything crazy.<\/p>\n

To resolve these conflicting concerns, the landlord will often pre-approve any of the tenant\u2019s plans that are far enough along to be approved when the lease is signed. If the tenant wants to change anything, the tenant might need to go back to the landlord and get approval of the change.<\/p>\n

Usually the landlord agrees to be \u201creasonable\u201d about approving the tenant\u2019s change. That basically means the landlord must approve it if an ordinary landlord in the same position\u2014with no particular axe to grind or weird idiosyncratic agenda\u2014would approve it.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

Sometimes, though, the lease will say the landlord can withhold its consent \u201cin Landlord\u2019s sole and absolute discretion.\u201d That language might suggest that the landlord could always disapprove anything and everything, with no obligation to be \u201creasonable,\u201d thus preventing the tenant from making any changes at all.<\/p>\n

A pending New York City litigation suggests that a landlord can\u2019t act quite as unreasonably as a lease might seem to allow. In that litigation, the lease said the landlord could disapprove plan changes in its sole and absolute discretion. The landlord apparently used that authority to disapprove practically everything the tenant ever wanted to change.<\/p>\n

Finally, the landlord came up with a new and different plan for the tenant\u2019s work, which would have cost twice as much as the tenant\u2019s original budget. Implicitly or explicitly, it became clear the landlord wouldn\u2019t approve anything except the landlord\u2019s new and different (and very expensive) plan. Eventually the landlord required the tenant to stop work.<\/p>\n

The tenant sued the landlord on various grounds, including based on a New York City law that prohibits \u201charassment\u201d of commercial tenants. That law defines \u201ccommercial tenant harassment\u201d with incredible breadth: it\u2019s anything a landlord does or doesn\u2019t do that \u201cwould reasonably cause a commercial tenant to vacate.\u201d The law then lists some examples, including any \u201crepeated or enduring acts or omissions that substantially interfere with the operation of a commercial tenant\u2019s business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court had little trouble concluding that the landlord\u2019s repeated disapprovals, if adequately proven, would constitute commercial tenant harassment because they continued over time and prevented the tenant from opening and operating its business. Eventually, they would lead the tenant to vacate the leased space. So the litigation proceeded, with the possibility that (among other things) a court might order the landlord to behave better.<\/p>\n

Moral of the story: in New York City, at least, if a lease says that a landlord can act unreasonably, or disapprove things in its sole and absolute discretion, the landlord shouldn\u2019t necessarily believe it. That principle could apply to much more than approval of changes in the tenant\u2019s construction plans. For example, if a tenant wanted to sell its business but a mean landlord disapproved a whole series of reasonable purchasers that the tenant proposed, could the tenant claim \u201ccommercial tenant harassment\u201d?<\/p>\n

Other cases make it clear, however, that ordinary one-off disagreements about a lease or a tenant\u2019s activities don\u2019t rise to \u201ccommercial tenant harassment.\u201d The New York City law also says a landlord\u2019s efforts to collect rent and enforce its remedies for nonpayment don\u2019t constitute harassment. Finally, a tenant typically cannot recover more than $50,000 from a landlord guilty of \u201ccommercial tenant harassment.\u201d Therefore, tenants shouldn\u2019t necessarily rejoice over having an all-purpose weapon for use against landlords.<\/p>\n

The writer tips his hat to Michelle Maratto Itkowitz for bringing this case to his attention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord will deliver the space pretty much as is, or with certain limited work completed. Then it\u2019s up to the tenant to build out the space so it meets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nA New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly | Innodebt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly | Innodebt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Innodebt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-19T16:03:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-19T16:03:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697731388_0x0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/person\/742362d9a293429cc45829acf21919b4\"},\"headline\":\"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-19T16:03:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-19T16:03:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\"},\"wordCount\":701,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\",\"name\":\"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly | Innodebt\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-19T16:03:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-19T16:03:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"width\":780,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Funding Factories\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/person\/742362d9a293429cc45829acf21919b4\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly | Innodebt","description":"In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly | Innodebt","og_description":"In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord","og_url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937","og_site_name":"Innodebt","article_published_time":"2023-10-19T16:03:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-19T16:03:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697731388_0x0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/person\/742362d9a293429cc45829acf21919b4"},"headline":"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly","datePublished":"2023-10-19T16:03:07+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-19T16:03:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937"},"wordCount":701,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937","url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937","name":"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly | Innodebt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-10-19T16:03:07+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-19T16:03:09+00:00","description":"In any commercial lease, one major issue relates to the work that needs to be done to prepare a space for the tenant\u2019s occupancy. Usually, the landlord","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=31937#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A New York City Law May Punish Commercial Landlords Who Behave Badly"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/","name":"Funding Factories","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#organization","name":"Funding Factories","url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","width":780,"height":140,"caption":"Funding Factories"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/person\/742362d9a293429cc45829acf21919b4","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/innodebt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31939,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31937\/revisions\/31939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}