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In the Spotlight: A 'Down-and-Dirty' Guide to Drafting Basic Landlord's Work Provisions

By Mark Morfopoulos
October 26, 2010

It is not an uncommon occurrence that installations need to be made to prepare commercial premises for a tenant's initial occupancy. Ideally, the parties will have a detailed set of plans and specifications prepared by licensed architects and engineers, which can be attached as a lease exhibit. Especially for large construction projects, it is critically important to obtain plans that are as specific as possible to ensure there is no mistake with regard to the work that needs to be done. Even if drawings and site plans are carefully prepared, the amount of litigation related to building installations is staggering.

For a smaller deal, however, the parties may not be able to afford hiring expensive architects and engineers. Nevertheless, the parties may still need to describe, as precisely as they can, the work that needs to be performed. Many owners ' and the lawyers who represent them ' find this to be a daunting task, since they have little or no knowledge relating to building construction matters. To make matters worse, landlords seek to describe the work they are performing (also known as “Landlord's Work” in contract drafting parlance) as vaguely as possible. They want to give themselves as much “wiggle room” as they can to construct improvements as they see fit. For example, if a tenant fails to specify where installations should be placed, a landlord may install them in a manner that will minimize its costs even if such installations make little sense from an operational point of view. Savvy tenants will not let this happen.

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