Missouri Real Estate Lawyer

Landlords should include these three lease clauses in every lease: attorney’s fees, additional rent, and no surrender.

Attorney’s Fees

Generally, a landlord cannot recover attorney’s fees unless the lease allows it. Therefore, if a landlord wants to recover the legal fees, costs and expenses incurred in a lawsuit, then the lease must include such clause. Check your lease clauses. Make sure the lease says that you are entitled to recover the attorney’s fees incurred by you if you win the lawsuit.

Additional Rent

“Rent and possession” is the typical lawsuit filed in Missouri to recover rent. However, a rent and possession action only allows for the recovery of past due rent. For this reason, many leases classify late fees, charges, and penalties as “additional rent”. If your lease does not classify these extra charges as rent, then consider changing your lease to make these charges “additional rent”. Most courts will award these charges to your anyway, but it’s a nice precaution to add to the lease.

No Surrender

Many landlords are all too eager to terminate a lease when a tenant abandons a property. They believe that a termination will end any rights the tenant may have in the premises. This is generally true. However, the landlord might unwittingly also terminate the tenant’s obligation to pay future rent under the lease.

A ”no surrender” clause states that the landlord will not accept a surrender of the property in the event the tenant abandons it. The clause also also states that the landlord will attempt re-let the premises to mitigate the tenant’s future rent damages.

That sounds odd. Why should a landlord help out a non-paying renter? Under Missouri law, a landlord can preserve the right to future rent under the lease by including such mitigation language in the lease. The landlord might be able to collect future rent owed under the lease if the landlord makes an effort to re-let the premises. If the landlord leases the premises, then the former tenant might be liable for the difference between rent due under the terminated lease and rent due under the subsequent lease. A proper no surrender clause can help preserve the right to collect future rent under the lease.

Take-Away

These lease clauses are critical for landlords. Including these lease clauses can add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to a landlord’s recovery.

Sewell Law provides professional litigation services in the areas of breach of contract/lease, commercial transactions, business, real estate, and torts. Michael Sewell has litigated more than 100 cases in federal, state and municipal courts and represented clients in appeals, arbitration and mediation.

For a confidential initial consultation at no charge, please contact Michael Sewell at (314) 942-3232 or at michael@sewelllaw.net.

The information in this article is for general informational purposes only. This information is not intended as legal advice. You should consult an attorney regarding how this information might apply to your specific circumstances.

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