Surrender Condition: Your Lease May Lack A Key Automatic Default Provision

For commercial landlords, ensuring that tenants return the leased premises in the agreed-upon condition is crucial to protecting their property and income. One effective way to enforce this is by making a tenant's failure to surrender the premises in the condition required by the lease an automatic event of default upon lease expiration, without any notice or cure periods.

In most commercial leases, tenants are given a cure period – usually 30 days – to fix nonmonetary defaults after receiving a notice from landlord. Often, leases also provide tenants additional time if the necessary repairs or actions can't be completed within the initial 30-day period. When it comes to lease expiration, if a tenant fails to meet their surrender obligations – such as delivering the premises in good condition and repair or removing tenant improvements – then they may be entitled to the full cure period, or even more if the lease allows for an open-ended cure period, before the