New Law Requires Lease Scrutiny
Here’s a GlobeStreet article that follows up on the information we posted on March 26th.
By Bruce Haring
The new California law designed to add protection against predatory lawsuits will have landlords and tenants taking a closer look at their commercial lease agreements before it kicks in on July 1.
Senate Bill 1186, which became law last September and takes effect on July 1, is intended to provide state landlords, tenants and business owners with added protection against predatory lawsuits based on alleged violations of construction-related disability access laws.
The availability of the protections turns on whether the subject property has been evaluated by a Certified Access Specialist for compliance with applicable disability access requirements. All commercial leases executed on and after July 1, 2013 need to disclose whether the subject premises have been inspected by a CASp, and, if so, whether the inspected premises have been determined to meet all applicable accessibility requirements.
However, the new law does not require the CASp inspections. It simply requires that landlords state in their leases whether or not they have had the inspection, and if so, whether the property meets the applicable accessibility standards.
A disclosure in a commercial lease that the premises have not been CASp inspected may prompt the tenant to request that the landlord undertake such inspection. Or the tenant may agree to undertake such inspection on its own (both of which are likely intended results from the legislation) in order to receive the benefits under SB 1186.
Read more of the GlobeSt article here.
The Peninsula Industrial Pros 