The Law Offices of Paul H. Appel – Your Trusted Business Law Partner in New Jersey
Ocean County · New Jersey
Retail, restaurant and service tenants along Brick's commercial roads tend to meet the law through their lease. Here is how the most common lease and purchase problems start, and how to respond without making them worse.
Brick Township, Ocean County
Much of Brick Township's commerce sits in shopping centers and roadside buildings along Route 70 and Route 88, with the Garden State Parkway close by. For many owners here, the single most important legal document they hold is a commercial lease.
Leases are long, landlord-drafted and easy to sign without reading. Problems tend to surface years later, at renewal, at a sale, or when the landlord's interests shift. The situations below are the ones Brick tenants most often bring in.
Paul works with Brick Township owners from the firm's Freehold office, meeting in person by appointment or by phone and video. Every matter is handled by Paul personally. The Ocean County business law hub explains the firm's wider work in the county.
A default notice arrived
Default notices start a clock. What you do in the cure period often decides whether the lease survives.
Identify the exact clause the landlord says you broke, and the cure period the lease gives for that kind of default. Monetary and non-monetary defaults often have different windows.
If the issue is a missed payment, an expired insurance certificate or a sign permit, curing it promptly removes the landlord's leverage.
Where you disagree, respond within the notice period in the way the lease requires. Informal calls leave no record.
Even a justified complaint rarely permits stopping rent under a commercial lease, and doing so can hand the landlord a cleaner default.
Other Brick situations
Relocation
Many plaza leases include a relocation clause. Check whether it requires a comparable space, payment of your moving and fit-out costs, and a right to terminate if the new unit does not work. If those protections are missing, renewal is the time to add them.
Lease negotiationGuaranty
A personal guaranty usually survives renewals and sometimes assignments. Owners can sometimes negotiate a cap, a burn-off after a period of on-time rent, or a release on sale. Read the guaranty itself, not just the lease, before you ask; the firm's article on personal guarantees in commercial leases covers the usual negotiating points.
Purchase
Confirm the landlord will consent to assigning the lease, that equipment is owned rather than leased, and that any licenses can transfer or be re-issued. Buyers of a New Jersey business's assets should also file the bulk sale notice with the Division of Taxation at least ten business days before closing.
Lease assignment in a saleRenewal season
Renewal options often require written notice months before expiry. Use the lead time to review these terms.
| Term | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Option notice date | When exactly must notice be sent, and how? Missing it can forfeit the option. |
| Renewal rent | Is it fixed, a percentage increase, or fair market value set by a process? |
| Common-area charges | Are increases capped, and do you have audit rights? |
| Repairs and HVAC | Who replaces major systems as the building ages? |
| Assignment | Can you sell the business and transfer the lease without unreasonable refusal? |
| Guaranty | Does your personal guaranty extend automatically into the renewal term? |
The firm's commercial lease services cover drafting, review and renegotiation for tenants and small landlords.
Brick Township questions
It depends entirely on the lease. Commercial leases commonly give a short window for missed rent and a longer one for other breaches, sometimes extended if you are diligently working on a fix. Some leases allow no cure for repeat defaults. Read the default section carefully, calendar the deadline and respond in writing within it.
A landlord is generally not obliged to release a guaranty unless the lease or guaranty says so. The practical options are negotiating a release as part of the landlord's consent to assignment, offering a substitute guarantor or security deposit from the buyer, or seeking a cap on your exposure. Raise it before signing the purchase agreement, not after.
Assuming the lease and equipment come with the business. Often the lease needs landlord consent, key equipment is financed or leased, and supplier contracts cannot be assigned freely. A careful review of those items, plus the bulk sale filing, protects the buyer from inheriting problems the price did not reflect.
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