Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc in New York and New Jersey
recently, and attracted worldwide attention. The collapse of a
portion of the rooftop parking lot at the Algo Centre Mall in
Elliot Lake, Ontario earlier this year caught the attention of
Canadians, due to the human tragedy involved.
From a commercial property perspective, the consequences of
those disasters are only now coming into focus. These rare but
significant events will call into play several obscure clauses in
leases – clauses which often do not receive much attention in
the lease negotiation process precisely because they are considered
unlikely to occur, abstract, and not worthy of attention.
It's bad enough that a disaster can occur; don't let
poorly negotiated lease provisions make you suffer twice from the
same disaster.
