My building is housing L-walls on two floors, and my walls need to be repaired. Now the lobby at my office is really crumbling and will collapse within the next 2 weeks. Can I get out of my lease, or will I have to pay rent for several months to maintain the building?
You do not have to worry about leaving your lease early.
The definition of the phrase “gap year” is a bit loose (it seems it was born on a 1950s talk show), but this means that you can leave the premises without penalty. Some buildings allow you to leave early without penalty, some allow you to leave sooner without penalty, and some allow you to leave of your own volition. The year you leave has to be at least 12 months or can last longer. You must not have breached the terms of your lease.
Under most commercial leases, you are contractually obliged to put a deductible against your next term renewal (more specifically the next annual rent check). Let’s say you made a $75,000 contribution last year and this year your deductible is $75,000. Your deductible this year would be $75,000 minus the current rent of $75,000 minus the term renewal of 6 months at $75,000. Based on this formula, if you made a $75,000 contribution next year, you would only have to pay $75,000 if your landlord does not permit you to leave early and you do so, leaving the gap year of any more than $75,000 (last 2 years). If your landlord does permit you to leave early, you must pay the required deductible to continue in the building until your term renewal is due.
If your landlord gives you the option to leave sooner without penalty, there is nothing in your lease to stop you from taking this option.
If the landlord allows you to leave with a high deductible, this is a valuable incentive to use the concrete instead of a property. If the cost of the premium for the installation of sound-deadening slab/pitch glass/laminate or gypsum is less than the cost of the deductible, you may try to use the coverage to achieve this goal. You can only get the deductible if you meet the deductible. In this case, you should not take this course of action, even if the deductible is much less than the cost of the premium for the premium for sound-deadening/laminate or gypsum.
You have two options. If the landlord grants you the right to leave with a deductible, do so. If the landlord allows you to leave without a deductible, consider hiring an experienced structural engineer to evaluate the structural integrity of the building, knowing that the “fire risk” is much greater than the level of your building’s deficiencies.
Like most offices, your building is in a slump, and the vibrations of your computer, television, and computer keyboard are adding noise in the building at 3:30 PM during each business day. The acoustical damage to the outside of the building can also be at risk. The contractor (or an individual with experience in this area) must be able to effectively analyze the noise and acoustic damage in the building and make an accurate assessment on how much you can reduce that.
The cost of utilizing the laminates can be advantageous if you are using these to reduce the noise, as well as providing adequate protection from the vibrations from your building, which is part of the building design.
If all of the above-listed work will be covered by your insurer, you may find that there is a greater degree of improvement in the building after the project is completed than before the project began. It may also increase the market value of the building, which will support a higher building appraisal to the landlord if there is a later renewal. These improvements may result in some of the costs being less than that of installing laminates (or maybe you will have to acquire these costs if this is the case).