Can You Terminate Your Lease Before Taking Occupancy

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New Jersey

Hi, I'll be very brief and concise.

I started looking at a property for retail operations in early march 2013. Brand New building, good location, etc. Was told by the landlord/construction group (no broker/real estate agent involved) that the construction/occupancy turn around would be 6-8 weeks. This would have been great and if i would have occupied within this time period, this would not have influenced my current thinking patterns and recent business investments. I signed the lease after reviewing it (everything seemed well and done here) but lets skip to August now.


It is now Mid-August, and i just received bids for constructing the most basic of elements. My mindset towards this lease has gone for the wall, and i'm trying to back out peacefully. Realistically, i don't see myself occupying by early November and I feel like the landlord is OBLIGATED to compromise the time constraints this lease has brought and let me back out with any sort of legal process.

Additionally, in the landlord obligations he said that he would provide a paint color of my choice, but went ahead and painted the whole ceiling black something that contrasts my stores theme so badly it's not even funny and laid down polished concrete when it said in the lease that he was obligated to provide ceramic tile.

I'm just looking for a way to leave and run, because this group of people is impossible to deal with as they are a construction group and not any credible landlord, but in the lease it does say that landlord is not held liable if he cannot provide a occupancy of April or May 1st, HELLO it's August, I want to know if this lease has somehow expired since i haven't occupied or something that can save me, because i only smell DOOM now.

Does your lease have a date when you are supposed to take occupancy? Does anything in the lease indicate that time is of the essence?

You say "i just received bids for constructing the most basic of elements" - does this mean that you are soliciting bids? When you said "the landlord/construction group" it appeared that the landlord was doing the work. If the landlord solicited the bids for your review, what did you do when you did not receive bids by an earlier date?

If your written contract with the landlord allows you to pick the color of the ceiling, point that out to the landlord and ask him to repaint it in the color you are contractually permitted to select. Tile can be laid over polished concrete, so if you want ceramic tile you can raise that issue with your landlord, as well. There are pluses and minuses to every floor covering - for example, polished concrete can be nicer in appearance (and easier to keep clean) than cheap ceramic tile, and tile is subject to chipping.

If the lease states or implies that you'll have occupancy by June 1, as you obviously do not, you may have recourse - but part of the answer to that depends upon the reasons for the delay, and the fact that the lease implies recourse does not of itself mean that the recourse would be your being able to walk away from the lease. As we cannot review the lease, I suggest having it reviewed by a local commercial real estate lawyer.

LL has duty to mitigate .. this would void that part of the contract ... if he waits until June ... a judge will just laugh at him I think ...

who paints a ceiling black?

I signed a lease waiver since it was TAKING SO LONG, they had initially told me building permits and c/o would be a 4-8 week turnaround but the elevator they have in the building took much longer than expected.

They had offered to provide me bids since they are a construction company and had said they had regular contacts who could do the fit out. Bids couldn't even come through until the permits were passed.

The delay was not caused by me in occupying but them taking so long to get the appropriate permits to occupy and even build in the space. The architect who was hired by them had also caused a lot of the delay, but they are denying his 'employment'

Also the lease waiver was signed by my brother who's not even on the llc, and i signed the contract with my personal name and not the business name. They didn't even do a credit check or anything and it seems like they rushed the whole thing. I'm trying to nullify the lease itself since it doesn't specify a date, and that is very essential.