Lease in Writing - Property Law - Solved Exam, Exams of Property Law

Download Lease in Writing - Property Law - Solved Exam and more Exams Property Law in PDF only on Docsity! 1D: Name: Exam Name: SP_Prop_FINAL_LS1_LP_2010SL Instructor: La Puma Grade: 1) IS THERE A VALID LEASE A lease creates an estate interest in land. A tenant has a present estate and the Landlord has a future interest. A tenancy between the landlord and tenant can take several forms. Here, the tenancy between O and T is a tenancy for years. This occurs when the tenancy is to last for a specific term. Here, T and O have entered into a written agreement to lease the property for five years in exchange for $1,000 per month. The agreement was signed by both parties so in complies with the statute of frauds. Additionally, it is a commercial lease because a business will be run in the building. ASSIGNMENT OF LEASE An assignment occurs when a party to the leasehold transfers their entire interest in the property to a third party. Here, T has assigned her interest to A. Since the original lease made no mention of the rights of assignment, the court will allow this transfer, and A will now hold privity of estate with O, and T will now be in privity of contract with O. Accordingly, A is now the current tenant of the fifth floor and must comply with all the rules / covenants in the lease. COVENANTS The lease contained two express covenants: 1. T can only use property as a yoga studio, and 2. L cannot allow competition in the building. To determine if these covenants apply to A, we must now see if the covenants run with the land. A covenant runs with the land (and therefore applies to future owners) if: 1. intent: the original parties must have intended that it apply to future owners. Here, this is must likely true. Since the lease was written and contained a written covenant, it is likely that O and T intended it to apply to future owners. Furthermore, the lease makes no mention of any future assignees or subleases, and the court does not like restraints on alienation, so it will treat this absence as a right to sublease/assign. 2. Notice: the future parties must have notice of the covenant. Here, the future parties have actual notice of the covenants because they are written in the lease. Additonally, A worked for T, so it is likely he had been told by T about the Here, A wrote to O in February and stated that O's needed to fix the floor. O took no action to do so, and in July, A moved out. A will argue that the damage to the floor amount to constructive eviction. However, the facts tell us that the floor was fixed, and that the buidling was up to code. Therefore A cannot argue that there was anything wrong with the building that disrupted his quiet enjoyment. Furthermore, he did not move out until July, which also shows that he was not constructively evicted. Accordingly, the Quiet Right of Enjoyment cannot be used as an excuse not to pay rent._There is another side to this. COMPETITION COVENANT. Awill next argue that L breached the covenant to not allow any competition in the building for the yoga store. A.will argue that a Pilates class taught on the basement level violated L's duty not to bring in any competition. L will argue that Pilates is an entirely different form of exercise then yoga, and is therefore not competion. The court will likely look at the express language of the K, which states that °L cannot lease to any competitor of T.". The key word in this covenant is "“competitor.:" It is reasonable to assume that Pilates is a competitor of yoga since they are both exercise classes. Therefore, L has breached this covenant. However, as stated before all covenants are independent and the tenant must still pay the rent until the matter is resolved._good Here, A must still pay the rent, even though © breached the covenant. A’s remedy is to sue for the money back. A’s SURRENDER. A lease can also end when a tenant surrenders their possession. When this occurs, the Landlord must take all reasonable action to try to re-rent the unit to another person. Here, A surrendered in July, when he mailed the key back to O. The lease still had 3.5 years left on it. The facts tell us that O did his part and has attempted to te-lease the property. As long as O continues to attempt to do so, A is liable to O for rent because A is in privity of estate with O. T'S PRIVITY OF CONTRACT. If O is unable to get money from A, he can still sue T to get the money, since T is in privity of contract with O. T's assignment to A does not end the privity of contract. Accordingly, O can sue A for the rent money that has not been payed since July 2009. UNCONSCIONABILITY Ahas one last recourse to avoid paying rent to O. The covenant in the lease states that A must use the property as a yoga studio. However, it has recently been discovered that the floor is too weak to support a yoga studio, making it impossible to comply with the contract. If A can prove that the current condition of the floor makes it impossible to comply with the covenant in the contract, the court may change the contract due to impractical terms and either let A off the hook to pay rent, or allow A to open something other then a yoga studio on the Sth floor. You are on the right track here. Implied in every contract is a covenan of good faith and fair deating. WHO HAS TO PAY OWNER If A cannot prove unconscionability of the lease contract, then A will owe rent money from July 2009 through the end of the five year lease. !f A does not pay, then T will have to pay. Good exam 75 END OF EXAM