Over the course of the coming weeks, we will be sharing a bulletin miniseries authored by members of our Ontario Real Estate Group on commercial leasing and landlord remedies. The four-part series will briefly touch on some of the fundamental principles regarding the rights of parties to a commercial lease, particularly in the event of a breach.
The following key questions will be discussed in this miniseries:
- When will a verbal agreement or offer to lease be held enforceable?
- What remedies are available to landlords where a tenant breaches a lease?
- How do limitation periods affect remedies available to landlords?
- Do landlords have a duty to mitigate damages in the context of commercial leases?
The first instalment in our Commercial Leasing & Landlord Remedies miniseries is a reminder that agreements to lease may be treated as a valid contract.
Where a formal lease agreement does not exist, the first step in assessing a breach may be to determine if there is a valid verbal agreement or offer to lease. A court will look to several factors when determining if there was an unenforceable “agreement to agree”, or rather a binding agreement to lease.
For example, in Northridge Property Management Inc. v Champion Products Corp. (2016 ONSC 2715 aff’d in 2017 ONCA 249), the Superior Court considered the discussions leading up to an offer to lease and documentation of such discussions. The Court further considered whether the offer to lease was comprehensive. In this case, there was sufficient detail to find the offer to lease binding, including: the term, a description of the premises, the rent, name of the parties, the commencement date, an arbitration clause, the floor plan, the scope of the landlord’s work, and a standard form of lease that the tenant was to execute.
This bulletin is the first part of a four-part series. Access the subsequent instalments below:
- (Part 2) Commercial Leasing & Landlord Remedies: Landlord’s Options in the Event of a Breach
Learn about the four key remedies available to commercial landlords at law, in the face of a tenant’s breach.
Read the full article >> - (Part 3) Commercial Leasing & Landlord Remedies: Effects of Limitation Periods
A consideration of when a landlord should respond to a tenant’s breach of a commercial lease.
Read the full article >> - (Part 4) Commercial Leasing & Landlord Remedies: Mitigation and Damages
A review of a landlord’s duty to mitigate losses following a tenant’s repudiation of a commercial lease.
Read the full article >>
This bulletin is authored by Sarah Turney (Partner - Real Estate Litigation and Land Development), Anna Lu (Associate - Real Estate Litigation and Land Development) and Brittany Vanword (Articling Student). For more information or to discuss a particular matter, please contact Sarah Turney or Anna Lu.
All information and opinions contained in this publication are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal or any other type of professional advice. The content of this publication is not intended to be a substitute for specific advice prepared on the basis of an understanding of specific facts. Any reliance on this information is at your own risk.
