Can a Landlord of a commercial property sign a lease with a new tenant before evicting current tenant?

When does the lease start for the new tennent?

As long as the new lease does not start till old tenant is out. So it can be signed for a future date

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ukan2

Can a Landlord of a commercial property sign a lease with a new tenant before evicting current tenant?

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Hello u:

Sure, as long as his dates line up right. If not, he'll get sued by his old tenant and his new one too. However, given that disputes regarding commercial leases are covered by contract law, it would, in my view, be extremely difficult to ascertain just WHEN the property would be available.

But, maybe he knows something I don't.

excon

The new lease needs to be conditioned upon the old tenant being out. Simple as that.

The new lease was signed first and then the lawful proceedings to remove the current tenant were applied. The lease was supposed to start on the 1st of June but the tenant wasn't out of the property until the 23rd of June. The new tenant didn't know that the timing was the determining factor in making the current lease applicable.
Now the owner of the property wants to amend the current lease in order to keep the new tenant. Does that sound fishy?

From the sounds of it the "owner" was doing something illegal. He should have never signed a new lease "before" the old tennent was out of there. Also he had no right to kick that tennent out if the lease was paid for. They are doing something really screwy.

The new tenant does not have to honor the new lease, since it was not available on the day they were to take possession. Also the new tenant may have a law suit against the owner if they had costs involved in getting ready to move in.

The landlord was playing both ends against the middle. Without knowing the circumstances of why the prior tenant was being thrown out, its hard to judge. Clearly the landlord didn't want to end his revenue stream so wanted to sew up a new tenant before he cut off the old one.

I don't think there is any illegality here though. The thing is the landlord would probably owe the new tenant a penalty for not having the premises ready on time.

What amendments does the landlord want to make?