Hey, fans of commercial property leasing! Good news for all – including ME! Friday, May 1 is Law Day and ABA Publishing is celebrating this special day by offering a promotion of 30% off, plus free ground shipping, on my 2018 tome, Joint Tenancies. This is a one-day sale, and the discount code for this […]
Archive for the ‘real estate’ Category
Force the (Legal) Issue, Before Courts Are Overpowered
23 Apr 2020 at 08:32
Michael Widener
commercial lease, commercial property, covenants, leasing, real estate
For folks who cannot get enough of the argument that force majeure has excused anyone from performing an unpleasant or difficult contract obligation, you’ll want to watch Pacific Collective LLC v. Exxon Mobil, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, in Case No. 20-STCV-13294. In that litigation, the Plaintiff California retail developer (Pacific) claims the […]
Excessive Social Distancing: 15-yard penalty and Loss of Down
A restaurant chain wrote this text in a form letter, sending it to dozens of landlords across the land last week: “As you know, the COVID-19 crisis is having a devastating impact on the restaurant industry on an unprecedented level. The National Restaurant Association projects an economic impact of at least $225 billion with five […]
Let’s End Homelessness, Part 2: Where’s the New Housing Going?
Three fundamental policy choices underlie municipal decisions on reducing homelessness: Location, permanence and prioritizing the quality of housing stock. The first choice deals with the simple calculation of “where will you put the homeless housing inventory?” It would be convenient to leadership if cities could simply privateer numerous under-utilized motels, hotels, and other residential and […]
THE VIRUS WON’T SEIZE UP YOUR JUDGMENT, LEASE PARTIES!
Knucklehead season is underway. A mattress company sent a “firm” letter to my landlord client announcing it was shorting its monthly rent installments for a while, starting next month. No description of by how much Tenant is discounting rent, or for how long – it’s just announcing “this is happening.” The problem is that a […]
Good Taste, Nutrition and Competitive Balance in the Food Industry, 2020 Edition
Local regulation of land development and operation guards against reckless and self-absorbed conduct by landowners. Zoning codes came along in the early 20th Century to diminish incidences of factories locating near residential areas for the convenience of their owners needing readily available labor, before use of autos was widespread. The result was contamination of rented […]
An NLP Visualization Exercise for Coronavirus COVID-19
We all know that our other than conscious mind is very powerful; it keeps our hearts beating, our lungs breathing, our spleens spleening (is that a thing?) and so one of the most powerful things we can do to stay healthy is to be sure that both our conscious minds, and our other than conscious […]
Landlords, Tenants, and COVID-19
An attorney I know sent this to me anonymously. Clearly not legal advice, but wise words. — Patrick If you’re a commercial lease stakeholder, whether a landlord or tenant. You’re also navigating personal circumstances, trying to use sanitizer, stay away from crowds, wash your hands frequently – in other words, you’re using your head to […]
Let’s End Homelessness – Then, Let’s Square the Circle
I’m not cynical. I believe attacking systemic homelessness is a worthy idea. I don’t believe defeating homelessness permanently is possible. (More on that below). That’s not a justification for not making housing circumstances better. Kudos to Phoenix’s Mayor Gallego for teeing up the problem and challenging participation. Now, it’s a problem at the scale of […]
Origination of the Lawyer Species
February brought on interesting claims of high-tech advances in loan origination and closing. The question for attorneys is whether the advances step on their professional toes. Two first quarter 2020 events trigger these observations: On February 5, Docutech, which brings you the platforms of eSign and eClose digital technology announced that it would partner with […]