A landlord's failure to enforce lease rights in response to
a tenant's default can result in the default rights becoming
unenforceable.
In the recent Alberta case of Sledz v. Edmonton Home Fair
Ltd., a tenant entered into a lease to operate a restaurant.
The tenant didn't open for business by the commencement date
set out in the lease. It was late several times in paying rent.
When it did start operating, it operated in a haphazard and
part-time fashion. The restaurant was often closed for extended
periods of time. All this behaviour by the tenant was clearly in
breach of the lease.
The landlord initially served a default notice on the tenant,
but in the following months did not enforce its default rights
after the further defaults. Instead, it accepted late payments of
rent from the tenant, and permitted the defaults to continue. From
the landlord's perspective, it was more interested in getting
the restaurant up and running in a proper way than using its
default
