Landlord/Tenant disagree on responsibilities

[mkathyf]

Ohio.
We have had a tenant occupying one of our commercial buildings for the past 5 years. He was required to give a 90 day notice if not renewing his lease. Which he did...just shy of the 90 days. (no big deal to us). However, in his typical fashion, he had already moved out prior to giving us the notice.

His lease expired Dec. 31, 2017. He moved out Oct. 1, 2017; but he did honor his lease and pay rent through December.

November 28, 2017 I emailed him to let him know we wanted to go inside and begin doing any necessary repairs and painting; which was beyond normal wear and tear. He told me he preferred I wait and that he should have everything out by the end of the following week. We waited until December 22, 2017 and had a crew go inside and begin to patch holes in the walls, sand, paint, etc.
At no time did the tenant ever tell me that he intended on doing any repairs or painting. In fact, he had the gas and electric turned off Oct. 31 (without informing us).
It wasn't until he walked into the building on December 29, 2017 and saw the crew completing the work, that he told me that he planned on having a crew of 8 people come in on December 30 to do all the work. (I might add that is would take more than 2 days to complete what needed to be done). And beside that, how was he planning on painting, etc. if he had the utilities turned off?

So, now we want to charge him for the labor and materials and he said that he does not have to pay anything because we went in and did the work without his permission and while he was still under lease.

Besides patching and painting, there is also a man door and an overhead door with several dings in them (they were new when he moved in). Because they still operate fine, he doesn't believe he should be responsible for having them replaced.
He also installed 4 sets of 4 bolts into the cement floor, which need to be removed and the cement repaired. (he was operating a gym).
He also cut a hole in the ceiling to install some type of work-out apparatus; and the ceiling still needs to be repaired and returned to it's original condition.

All of this he believes he holds no responsibility for.

I welcome your opinion. Were we wrong in going in and doing the repairs and painting, prior to his lease expiring? And because we did, is he not responsible for the costs we incurred?

 

[Zigner]

Ohio.
We have had a tenant occupying one of our commercial buildings for the past 5 years. He was required to give a 90 day notice if not renewing his lease. Which he did...just shy of the 90 days. (no big deal to us). However, in his typical fashion, he had already moved out prior to giving us the notice.

His lease expired Dec. 31, 2017. He moved out Oct. 1, 2017; but he did honor his lease and pay rent through December.

November 28, 2017 I emailed him to let him know we wanted to go inside and begin doing any necessary repairs and painting; which was beyond normal wear and tear. He told me he preferred I wait and that he should have everything out by the end of the following week. We waited until December 22, 2017 and had a crew go inside and begin to patch holes in the walls, sand, paint, etc.
At no time did the tenant ever tell me that he intended on doing any repairs or painting. In fact, he had the gas and electric turned off Oct. 31 (without informing us).
It wasn't until he walked into the building on December 29, 2017 and saw the crew completing the work, that he told me that he planned on having a crew of 8 people come in on December 30 to do all the work. (I might add that is would take more than 2 days to complete what needed to be done). And beside that, how was he planning on painting, etc. if he had the utilities turned off?

So, now we want to charge him for the labor and materials and he said that he does not have to pay anything because we went in and did the work without his permission and while he was still under lease.

Besides patching and painting, there is also a man door and an overhead door with several dings in them (they were new when he moved in). Because they still operate fine, he doesn't believe he should be responsible for having them replaced.
He also installed 4 sets of 4 bolts into the cement floor, which need to be removed and the cement repaired. (he was operating a gym).
He also cut a hole in the ceiling to install some type of work-out apparatus; and the ceiling still needs to be repaired and returned to it's original condition.

All of this he believes he holds no responsibility for.

I welcome your opinion. Were we wrong in going in and doing the repairs and painting, prior to his lease expiring? And because we did, is he not responsible for the costs we incurred?

Well, you did jump the gun a bit. This is a commercial lease - Landlord/tenant law is generally intended to apply to residential tenancies. Commercial tenancies are much less governed and would depend much more on the actual wording of the lease. I would suggest that you take all of your documents to a local attorney for a personal review of the matter.

 

[adjusterjack]

So, now we want to charge him for the labor and materials and he said that he does not have to pay anything because we went in and did the work without his permission and while he was still under lease.

Besides patching and painting, there is also a man door and an overhead door with several dings in them (they were new when he moved in). Because they still operate fine, he doesn't believe he should be responsible for having them replaced.
He also installed 4 sets of 4 bolts into the cement floor, which need to be removed and the cement repaired. (he was operating a gym).
He also cut a hole in the ceiling to install some type of work-out apparatus; and the ceiling still needs to be repaired and returned to it's original condition.

All of this he believes he holds no responsibility for.

I welcome your opinion. Were we wrong in going in and doing the repairs and painting, prior to his lease expiring? And because we did, is he not responsible for the costs we incurred?

He may have a valid point. He paid through Dec 31, it was his place until Dec 31.

Ohio doesn't have a commercial landlord tenant statute. Probably wouldn't cover this if it did.

This is a contractual issue and you are going to have to read your contract to determine if the tenant is right about you jumping the gun on the repairs.

At the very simplest, if your lease says something like "tenant to return property to landlord on expiration in the same condition as when he got it, exclusive of wear and tear" then you had no business going in until after Dec 31.

He may still be responsible for the cost of repairs but you can bet there will be a dispute between what you want to charge him and what he will say he could have done all the work for.

Your argument about painting without utilities is spurious. Leaving the overhead doors open would provide plenty of light and there are gasoline operated paint sprayers.

Small dings on the overhead doors are wear and tear, big dents are damage.

Whatever happens, you're arguing from a weak position and might end up with a costly compromise.

 

[HRZ]

I don't know what is in you lease..but turning off gas and electric in dead of winter is an invitation to frozen water pipes.

I agree you might have jumped the gun a tad..then again in context of damage mitigation it made sense to get started.
I see your point about bolts, doors and holes ....but what does your lease say about returning building to original condition?

MY guess as a LL elsewhere : good odds as to all unpaid rents and fees as per lease, partial recovery for dinged doors and partial recovery for things you fixed before he had chance to fix them, good odds for things he failed to fix that were undone as of Dec 29 and he made no effort to get fixed before lease expired

BTW factor in if tenant (s) have ability to pay and or if there are any personal guarantees