Lease Law

Lease Law is diverse and complex. There are differences between residential  real estate, offices and retail. It may relate to  obligations of lessors and lessees, termination formalities, pricing, lessee events of default and their consequences, urgent need of the lessor to use the real estate, urgent maintenance and reconstruction works, lessor events of default, asbestos, consequential damages, liability, substitution of lessee, goodwill compensation, insolvency etc. 

Contracts

Lease agreements determine your rights and obligations as lessor or lessee to a large extent. It is important to know what should be included in them, what points should be negotiated, what is normally required or accepted and how to draft it in the agreement, regardless if it involves lease-, turnkey or cooperation agreements.

Liability

As an owner or landlord of the real estate you can face several difficulties which need to be taken into account such as completion of agreements, defaulting on contractual obligations, purchaser's requisite due diligence, seller's duty of disclosure, limitation of liability, representations and warranties, legal and factual misrepresentation, ownership related obligations etc.

Rights in law

Apart from ownership and lease there are other rights in law related to real estate that may serve your interest or that may limit your rights such as long lease ('erfpacht'), servitude ('erfdienstbaarheden'), splitting property into rights of apartment ('appartementsrechten'), rights of pledge ('pandrecht') and mortgage ('hypotheekrecht'), usufruct ('vruchtgebruik'), matters relating to associations of apartment owners ('Vereniging van Eigenaars') etc.

Legal relationship with neighbours

 A good neighbour is better than a remove friend; as a Dutch expression goes. Unfortunatelly not every neighbour is a good neigbour. You may have to deal with nuisance, rights with respect to shared property ('mandeligheid'), limitations in time with respect to legal title, torts etc. Be sure to be aware of your legal position.

Injunctions

If you are not paid, you may attach (some of) the assets of the counterparty that did not pay. You may freeze the assets by way of a so called 'conservatoir beslag' and you may foreclose assets by way of a so called 'executoriaal beslag' in order to use the value of the foreclosed assets to be paid. Be sure to know what you may do, also if you are facing an attachment yourself.