Protecting Yourself When Your Office Building Renters Sue You for Breach Of Contract
Renting and selling office buildings can be a lucrative business if you are smart and avoid complicating your contract. However, you are being sued by a business renter because they claim you sold the building that they were renting legally. What can you do to avoid financial loss?
Being Too Eager to Sell May Breach a Contract
The transfer of a contract or a property too soon may cause a suit that can cost you a lot of money to settle. For example, if you are renting an apartment building to a business, you have a contract that likely makes it impossible for you to sell the building until they vacate. However, you believed that the business was moving out and found a third party that wanted to buy the office. Unfortunately, your renters are now claiming that they are staying longer and are suing you for breaching your contract. In many cases, liability will fall on you depending on the nature of your contract.
When You May Be Liable in This Type of Case
Liability in breach of contract cases may often seem rather cut-and-dry. For example, you had a rental agreement with one business and then sold the office they occupied to another person before their rental terms were over. In this situation, liability will fall strictly on you and can be hard to argue against without a lot of help. However, there are usually mitigating circumstances that complicate a breach of contract. For example, the people renting your office building may have suddenly decided that they were staying longer and did not give you proper warning. Or you may have an exit scenario that you executed in a proper way. In these situations, you may be able to win this case more easily.
What Types of Defenses Are Possible
If you sold a house too soon and are potentially looking at a breach of contract lawsuit, you need to come up with a defense that protects you from serious financial loss. Defenses can be hard to manage in this type of case and typically focus on situations in which the contract could not be enforced.
For example, you may argue that the business suing you for breach of contract in the above-mentioned situation did not give you sufficient warning that they were staying on the premises longer. In this situation, you were not properly informed and acted without critical information when making your selling decision.
Other defenses include trying to argue that the contract was illegal or otherwise invalid. However, it is best to stick with the facts and to use them against somebody who may be suing you unfairly. Don't hesitate to contact a professional commercial litigation attorney to avoid serious financial loss in this type of case by improving your chances of winning.