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To maximize your property’s value and profit, limiting premises liability should be a priority for you—and you should communicate this to your property manager, who’s most likely to hear about and react to injuries before you do. To make sure your property manager understands the importance of preventing personal injuries and reacting to them appropriately when they do occur, make sure she is familiar with:

You may want to negotiate to keep your tenant's fixtures—for example, lights, seating, or shelves that are attached to its space—after it moves out. But what if you change your mind later and want the tenant to remove and take its fixtures with it before it leaves? You can carve out that option in the lease by specifying that you will provide notice to the tenant at a certain point before the term is over that you are requiring it to take its fixtures with it.

Dry cleaners, gas stations, and auto service centers provide goods and services that many people don't want to give up. But the chemicals they require to operate their businesses pose potential environmental risks at the properties where they operate. If you're nervous about leasing space to an environmentally risky tenant, but the deal is too good to give up, you can limit your liability by negotiating protections at three stages: before, during, and after the lease term. Mitigate your risks by:

Q: I’m contemplating signing a lease with a tenant that will require the tenant to construct its own building at my shopping center and require me to pay a construction allowance within a certain period of time after the tenant opens for business. The tenant is negotiating for provisions allowing it, in the event that I don’t pay it the construction allowance, to abate rent and other charges until it has been paid.

Amending your lease with a tenant can work in your favor if you can remove certain portions that would've worked against you if exercised by the tenant. But keep in mind that removing a clause dealing with one right doesn't make a related right invalid. You must expressly delete each provision when amending the lease. Otherwise, the provisions are still in effect.

One of the key economic questions any commercial lease must address is whether the tenant is responsible for paying real estate taxes on the property and, if so, how much. More often than not, the tenant does have tax liabilities, but because of the money involved, the issue is often hotly negotiated. And while every deal is different and generally reflects the bargaining power of the sides involved, there are eight protections that owners should seek in any negotiation with their tenants over tax allocation terms in the lease:

Q: I'm dealing with a struggling tenant at my shopping center. The tenant has been late paying rent two months in a row. If I continue to accept late rent each month, could the tenant argue that the lease has been modified by my actions and it’s entitled to pay late? What is the best way to handle this situation?

Leases for commercial space can be drafted by the tenant or owner. If you're responsible for drafting a lease with a tenant for your shopping center or office building, make sure that the terms and conditions in the document are clear and unambiguous. An ambiguous lease can cause multiple problems, regardless of who drafted it. That's because disputes about unclear terms could land you and the tenant in court for a determination as to who is right.

If you own a shopping center or strip mall, some of your retail tenants will probably ask you to allow them to operate during hours that are the most convenient for their businesses, even though you've set operating hours for the entire center. And you may be tempted to give some tenants, especially those who bring a lot of foot traffic to the center or have a lot of leverage, discretion for setting their own operating hours, instead of operating during the period of time that you plan to run the center or strip mall.

When lenders make a loan secured by a mortgage or deed of trust against income-producing commercial real estate, they typically review lease forms and reserve the right to approve new leases to make certain that the owner will be able to service the debt and that the tenant mix will maintain or improve the value of the property. Additionally, lenders tend to make certain the terms and conditions include legal protections for them.