Hospitality Law
The case at hand pertains to a commercial lease. And as such, several issues and problems are evident in the case. For one, Julia fails to conduct research before committing to renting the business premises. One of the best practices before signing a commercial lease is for the potential tenant to conduct extensive research (Portman & Steingold, 2017). She did not vet the landlord, and therefore, had no way of knowing if what he told her regarding the premises was true or not. She also did not take her time to get a general feel of the area, by for instance, interviewing other tenants. Julia overlooked the issue of risk as it related to her new business. She did not assess the kinds of risk that the businesses premises presented to her new business, and she rented it blindly with the belief that Norman’s assertions regarding the success of Westlake Shopping Center were true. Now that she is facing financial trouble with her business, the problem is that she cannot hold Norman legally liable for what her business is facing.
Norman appears to have used deception to convince Julia to rent the business premises. He assured her that renting the vacant space opposite Food Savers would help her business as she would be able to attract many customers; Food Savers went into receivership and closed its stores. Also, Norman promised Julia that he would launch a countrywide advertising campaign to advertise the shopping center to make it a success but later realized he had no money for this initiative. The negotiation of clear terms for the lease agreement is lacking. Therefore, the responsibilities of the two parties with regard to the lease agreement are unknown. It is also quite evident that insurance coverage as it relates to the contract is missing. Therefore, the losses incurred by the two parties cannot be compensated.
Reference
Portman, J., & Steingold, F. S. (2017). Negotiate the best lease for your business. Nolo.
