Get the Answers Before Signing a Dental Office Lease
Date: August 29, 2011
Co-Author: Philip M. Bogart, Esq.
Unless a dentist owns his or her dental office, the lease agreement is probably one of the most important business agreements that he or she will ever enter into with another party. Nevertheless, many dentists (and many other professionals as well) do not even read their leases agreements until there is a problem. Even if a dentist reviews the lease, sometimes the scope of review is limited to the duration of the lease and the monthly rent payment.
The biggest — and most common — mistake is assuming the initial form lease presented by the landlord is nonnegotiable. Worse, often dentists rely upon assurances from the real estate brokers that the form is “standard in the industry” or just “boilerplate.” There is no such thing as a "standard lease." At other times, a dentist becomes a party to a lease as a result of a practice acquisition. As a result, the buying dentist assumes that he or she is bound to accept the existing terms and conditions of the lease.
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