[WSBARP] Lessee have any obligation whatsoever?

[Andrew Lemmel]

Hello all – please let me know your thoughts on the following, which is a
cross-post from another attorney, and if you have any referrals for the
right counsel please let me know.  

 

Auto body shop owner (PC) is the lessee on a property where his auto body
shop is located) that is under contract of sale to another party.  PC’s
multiyear term lease with the current owner just came to the natural end
of its term and PC is now a month-to-month tenant. 

 

The property, once sold, will be used for a to-be-built commercial
development project that does not include PC’s body shop business or the
building that houses the shop, which building will be demolished to make
way for the new project construction.

 

Obviously, PC will have to move and PC has no problem with that. However,
PC has a problem with this issue: Current owner/PC’s landlord, has asked
PC to sign a Declaration stating (among other things which are innocuous
recitations of PC’s current status as a month-to-month tenant) that PC has
done no improper disposal of toxic substances on the property. 

 

PC has not done any improper disposal. However, in principal, PC is averse
to signing the Declaration because he is not a party to the pending sale;
is not obligated to sign it the Declaration by the provisions of the
now-ended term lease; and, accordingly, there appears to be no reason for
him to sign the Declaration.

 

I told PC that unless he is obligated by some environmental statute to
sign the Declaration, his doing so would be a nonsensical gratuitous act
that could come back to impose liability on him (misrepresentation
liability at a minimum) if it turns out that there is evidence of improper
disposal of toxic substances on the property, which disposal cannot
definitively be attributed to someone other than PC. 

 

However, I also told PC that he does need to speak with an attorney
familiar with the issues attendant to auto body shops in order to make
sure that he is generally protecting himself as the soon-to-be-vacating
lessee, and I mentioned to PC that I would post a listserve inquiry for PC
requesting contact info for attorneys who do this kind of work.

 

I thank you in advance for any leads that you may have re attorneys who
have this expertise. 

 

 

 

Andrew L. Lemmel

Andrew Lemmel Attorney at Law PLLC

1900 West Nickerson Street, Suite 116-153, Seattle WA 98199

P:206-283-0593

F:866-397-4743

 <mailto:andrew at lemmel-law.com> andrew at lemmel-law.com

 

This email may contain privileged information I intended to send only  to
a client of my law firm.  If you received it by mistake, please let me
know, and then delete it.  IRS CIRCULAR 230:  Tax discussion or "advice"
in this email will not protect you from IRS penalties.  

 

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