You’re renting a commercial property for your business, so you’re not the owner. That said, you definitely were involved with designing the space and the person who owns the building isn’t there very often.
So who has to make repairs if something breaks or malfunctions? It could be as simple as a window that will no longer lock or as serious as massive water damage that is destroying the ceiling. Do you have to make these repairs or does the landlord have to do it?
The lease can be set up in many different ways
It’s all going to come down to your lease. There is no hard-and-fast rule about how this has to work in all cases. It just depends on what you agreed to when you leased the space.
Generally speaking, the landlord will be responsible for upholding the quality of the space. They own the building and they need to fix it if something goes wrong.
But that doesn’t mean that they can’t write the lease in a way that absolves them of this responsibility. It may specify that you have to make all interior repairs, for instance, while they have to deal with exterior issues or structural issues. It’s very important to understand all of the clauses that may have been used in that lease and how they could impact your obligations moving forward.
For this reason, it’s critical that you understand all of your legal rights at every stage in this process, from the moment that you first consider the commercial lease to the moment that you realize significant repairs are needed.