getting out of lease

[CAnderson1]

I need to know if people can get out of a lease in a commerical property due to the fact that they have tried everything and can no longer pay the rent. I am to the point where I have tapped out every line of credit I have and just can't continue. Do people get out of leases for these reasons. I have seen many people skip out at night and others ahve told me the management doesn't go after them. I don't want to risk it. I only have 7 months left on a 5 year lease. The problem did start with the management not maintaining the parking lot. We border a major mall and during the holidays our lot fills up with mall shoppers to the point where my customers stopped coming. There have been times when I didn't have a space to park my car to open the store and had to park in the fire lane till a stall opened up. They refuse to put our name on the call list for towing and they didn't have signage to say not mall parking. As of January they put signs at entrances but still no ability to tow. Although after 4 years of this situation and now the bad economy parking is no longer a problem, I have no customers.

 

[jrsgj]

I am not an attorney, but offer will offer only my opinion. First I would need to review the lease. However you state you can no longer pay the rent, so you will not be paying any longer. You will then go into default and landlord should have a clause in your contract on his next step.(default procedure) Who ever signed the lease are the responsible parties to each other, and if you signed personally, or guaranteed it personally in any way you may be held liable till the end of the term. You will most likely lose your security deposit,
toward the rent and any damaged caused by you if any when you leave.

You may want to have your attorney review your lease, and maybe send a letter to the landlord and explain your financial dilemma, and maybe negotiate a settlement from now if you leave early. Sometimes if you help find another party to take over your lease or space it may ease the problem. At that point you could try to bring up other issues you had with management if they breached the contract in any way. Why did you wait 4 years to complain about this parking problem now? Not good if it was not in writing and it was in your lease governing this issue. If you can try to sit an settle things with your landlord this is always recommended first. Other wise there is arbitration or court, where no body really wins except usually the attorneys. $$

The bad economy is not directly your landlords problem, but if you were a good tenant over the years maybe he would be willing to give you a rent reduction not to lose you, because finding another tenant in this market is not as easy as it used to be. Again this is not legal advice only my business
opinion. I hope it hips a little, be check with your attorney ASAP, as the days are going by at a cost to someone.