Operating a commercial facility is certainly challenging. When you have numerous tenants, you could be facing a tougher job. This is compounded when some of those tenants are considered messy or unruly.
The impact that messy tenants can have on a commercial facility can be devastating. In fact, it can cause other tenants to cancel their lease, refuse to renew their lease, and move out. There have been numerous cases in which messy and unruly tenants have caused small strip malls, office spaces, and more to lose tenants, money, and to basically become ghost facilities nobody uses anymore.
If that sounds like a worst-case scenario, it can happen. Messy tenants are just like messy home renters or homeowners who don’t really care about their property. It’s like a cancer and begins to spread all around.
Think about it this way: if somebody moves into a relatively decent community and there are no regulations regarding how they need to maintain their property, if they mow the grass, or anything else with regard to their home or personal property, and they don’t care about it at all, there could be garbage piling up, the grass can grow to several feet long, bushes can take over, the house can begin to decay, and it can be an eyesore.
After years and years of trying to do something about it, the next door neighbor finally decides to move out. However, they can’t get what their home is truly worth because no one wants to move in next door to that unruly and unkempt property for market value. Somebody looking for great deal gets that property and it’s suddenly not being cared for, either. It spreads and before you know it the entire neighborhood is going downhill.
The same can happen with commercial facility. So how do you deal with these unruly and messy tenants?
You make provisions in the lease regarding what they need to do to not have you, the landlord, evict them. Give yourself the ability to evict unruly or messy tenants and be clear on stipulations that must be met in order to remain in the facility. Consult a real estate attorney to help properly word your new leases going forward.
As for those tenants who are currently in your facility, there’s little you can do aside from investing a little extra time and maybe money keeping the storefront or forward facing areas a bit more presentable and keeping in close contact with all the other tenants you have who may be impacted by this messy tenant.