Rethinking Boilerplate

As the United States economy begins to create renewed demand for office and retail space, landlords and tenants have the opportunity to take the lessons learned from the recent downturn into their next lease negotiation. While there are a number of hotly contested business and legal points in any negotiation, it is easy to forget the boilerplate provisions buried at the end of a lease. These boilerplate provisions are often unquestioned simply because they are standard; however, many of these provisions deserve a fresh look before being incorporated into new leases. There is a clause that has the ability to allocate risk grossly to one party or the other. If left unmodified, this clause ' the landlord liability clause ' can also leave a tenant without a meaningful remedy for the rights that it has so carefully negotiated. This article explores the limitation of the landlord liability clause.