One of the essential elements of a binding agreement to lease is
the identity of the parties. The parties must be named. The names
must be correct. The parties must have legal capacity to contract.
This may seem straightforward, but it can actually be quite
perplexing. In some cases, the party named as landlord is actually
a property manager, or the party named as tenant turns out to be an
incorrect combination of the legal and business names of the
entity, or a defunct or even non-existent corporation.
The importance of identifying the proper parties to a lease
cannot be overstated. In many cases, a landlord's recovery
rights under the lease will be limited to the named tenant. If the
named tenant does not exist, or if the corporate entity is inactive
or defunct, it will be difficult for the landlord to enforce the
tenant's lease obligations in a judicial arena.
