My Mom has a 20k sf comm bldg with three tenants.
Her last tenant was brought in by an outside PM/RE company.
They set her up with the new tenant on a two two-year leases
and collected their commission up front. Is that legal?
(collecting their commission up front)
Now, after the first two-year lease has expired and we just
renewed the tenant for their 2nd two-year lease he has
become a very troublesome tenant.
He has an Auto Service & Repair business and has been given several
warnings on the cleanliness of his operation. He has accumulated
massive amounts of used oil, used oil filters, used trans oil, etc.
The warning only cause him to act in a temporary manner to
reduce some of the toxic waste, but it is starting to build up again.
He has broken the lease agreement by not getting written
permission from the PM or Owner to install a SAT dish Antenna,
and penetrated the roof deck (to mount it) and cause leaking into the
adjacent tenant’s business.
The Sat Dish was removed (after given three request to remove it)
and he was charge a $30 fee for this. In other words he complied by paying
the removal fee.
Weeks later the Sat dish is put back up on the roof deck.
The roofer has concurred that it is improperly mounted and
causing the leaks.
How can we get rid of this tenant and make him pay for the leasing
commission that was paid up front to get him, and of course have
no further recourse with him?
I need some professional advice to help prevent getting another
tenant like this. :
The commission is usually paid up front. Some Realtors will guarantee the tenant stays and pays a certain length of time or get you another tenant at no additional charge. Refunds are not in their vocabulary.
Evicting the tenant for the small violations will be difficult. You can serve them a 30 day notice to vacate for the violations and file an eviction in small claims court. It is my belief the judge may award you money damages but will not kick them out.
There are govt agencies that regulate the storage of oil etc. In Corpus Christi I found a company that came out for free and disposed of the used oil. I had 250 gallons on the property from a body shop that was abandoned. There is a lot of refineries in Corpus and you may not be able to find the same free service as I did.
At the end of the lease you will have a better chance of getting rid of them.
Hi Tedjr.
I spoke to Dish Network Corporate offices and they have a requirement for ‘commercial’ accounts to get a document showing the tenant has permission from the PM or owner to put up the Sat antenna and for them to turn on the service. They made the mistake allowing him to have service since Feb 2005 because he took out a ‘residential’ account. Since he didn’t get the PM permission letter, we can request to shut his service off - forever. Also, he is behind in payments to Dish Network.
Since you make it sound like it is hard to get rid of him, we will need more documentation.
I guess for the other issues, I can talk to EPA, Fire Dept., Insurance co. Health dept. to see if he is breaking any regulations.
If at any time we wish to sell the building, with a dirty shop, late rent payments, deliberate challenges to the lease agreement we are not doing ourselves a favor in trying to rectify the situation with him.
Is there ever an instance where the tenant ends up paying part of the commission if the agent that got him in won’t cooperate and get another tenant with better work habits?
Can an owner or PM require a janitorial service if the tenant doesn’t keep the place clean?
Only A+ tenants will pay fees and rent if they break a lease, companies like Walmart, Target, Dollar General etc. Your auto body shop guy has been there two years and this may be enough to where the Realtor earned their commission.
You can require the tenant to keep the premises clean but can not force him to hire someone to do it. Here again your only remedy would be to sue him in small claims court if you have to remove dangerous materials or clean up do to health code violations.
