Legal counsel for commercial leasing and property management, covering lease drafting and negotiation, landlord and tenant rights, community association counsel, and the ongoing responsibilities that come with operating property.
A commercial lease has almost no default rules behind it. The Illinois statute supplies a five-day notice for unpaid rent and a ten-day notice for any other breach, and it bars a landlord from changing the locks without a court order. Everything else, the pass-throughs, the repair line, the consent standard for a sublease, exists only if the lease says it does.
The operating-expense clause is where a landlord earns or loses the deal after signing. Which capital items pass through CAM, how the management fee is computed, and how long the tenant has to audit the reconciliation before it is deemed accepted decide more over a ten-year term than the base rent did, and under many leases a landlord that misses its own reconciliation deadline waives the shortfall.
Condominium and community associations run on a second rulebook, the Illinois Condominium Property Act and the declaration, where a fine needs notice and a hearing first and a board that skips a step loses the enforcement. We act for landlords, tenants, and boards, and we calendar the dates the documents create, because a lease administers nothing on its own.
Drafting and negotiating commercial leases for landlords and tenants, addressing rent and escalation, maintenance and repair, assignment and subletting, default and remedies, and the operational terms that govern a multi-year relationship.
Advising on the rights, obligations, and liability each side carries in a leasing relationship, so that both landlords and tenants understand and protect their position before and during the term.
Structuring the management agreements, operational responsibilities, and liability arrangements that property management depends on, so each party's responsibilities are clear and kept up.
Counsel to condominium and community associations and their owners on governing documents and the responsibilities and limitations of operating within an association, where shared ownership carries its own legal framework.
Confirming that leasing and management practices stay within the limits of federal, state, and local law, including the land use, zoning, and disclosure requirements that apply to leased and managed property.
Resolving disputes between landlord and tenant, association and owner, or parties to a management arrangement, drawing first on the governing documents and, where needed, on negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, or litigation.
An Illinois eviction begins with a notice, five days for unpaid rent and ten for other breaches, served as the statute allows. A notice that overstates the amount due, reaches the wrong person, or is followed by acceptance of partial rent without the statutory reservation fails in court, and the landlord starts over.
Where a lease requires the landlord's consent to an assignment or sublease and sets no standard, Illinois courts have let the landlord refuse for any reason or none. A tenant that may need to shed space wants a reasonableness standard and a deemed-approval deadline; a landlord wants recapture rights and a share of profit rent.
Under a base-year lease the tenant pays operating expenses above the base year, so one set during low occupancy, or never grossed up, inflates every later bill. An audit right with a fixed window, a cap on controllable expenses, and a list of excluded capital items are the tenant's protections, none standard.
An Illinois condominium association can lien a unit for unpaid assessments and, after notice, use the eviction process to take possession of it until the arrears are paid. Sellers deliver the Section 22.1 disclosures on request, boards circulate the budget before adopting it, and paid managers need a state license.
A lender or buyer will ask every tenant for an estoppel certificate confirming the rent, the term, and the absence of defaults; most leases give the tenant about ten business days, after which the landlord's version is deemed true. The SNDA is the tenant's only assurance of keeping possession if the landlord's lender forecloses.
A tenant who willfully holds over after written demand owes double rent under Illinois law, and most leases set holdover rent at a multiple of the final month's rate besides. The landlord's exposure is the incoming tenant's delivery date; the tenant's is whether holdover creates a month-to-month tenancy or a trespass.
Before drafting begins, we fix the economics on one page: base rent, escalations, TI allowance, exclusives, renewal options. We flag which points are actually binding. Concessions given casually at the LOI stage are nearly impossible to recover in the lease.
The lease itself is negotiated clause by clause: CAM and operating-expense pass-throughs, repair and restoration obligations, assignment and subletting consent standards, default cures, SNDA and estoppel mechanics. Every allocation of risk lives in this document, because there is no default rule to fall back on.
Delivery conditions, punch lists, and the commencement-date memorandum start the clock. From there the lease is administered, with escalation notices, CAM reconciliations, insurance certificates, and association and management-agreement obligations tracked so the paper matches the property.
Option windows are calendared and exercised on time. Defaults are cured or enforced under the notice-and-cure ladder the lease sets. Holdover, surrender, and restoration terms decide how cleanly the parties part, unless the term begins again.
A lease is the only landlord-tenant law you get to write yourself.
Three kinds. Contractual, set by the lease or the management agreement: repair and maintenance, insurance, and the pass-through accounting. Statutory: the Illinois Eviction Act's notice and process rules, the Condominium Property Act for association property, and the licensing rules for anyone who manages an association for a fee. And exposure in tort to tenants, visitors, and contractors on the premises, which the lease allocates through indemnity and insurance clauses and which the certificates of insurance you collect each year actually back.
Because the statute will not fill the gaps. Residential tenants have habitability and security-deposit law behind them; a commercial tenant has only the document. The clauses that matter most over a ten-year term are the operating-expense definition and its exclusions, the assignment and subletting standard, and the default section with its cure periods. A landlord's form takes each of them in the landlord's favor, and an unread form becomes the law of the premises.
For landlords, we build the form lease and its exhibits once, negotiate each tenant's redline against it, and prepare the notices, estoppels, and subordination agreements the building generates over its life. For tenants, we negotiate from the letter of intent, where exclusives, renewal options, and the improvement allowance are won or lost, through the work letter and the commencement memorandum. For either, when a default is declared, the lawyers who drafted the clause are the ones who enforce or defend it.
Yes. Boards come to us for amendments to the declaration and bylaws, for the assessment-collection process the Condominium Property Act and the Eviction Act allow, and for rules enforcement, which requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before a fine can be levied. Sellers ask for the Section 22.1 disclosures a buyer is entitled to request, and buyers ask what the declaration permits, usually after the closing instead of before it.
For residential buildings of five or more units, the Illinois Security Deposit Return Act requires an itemized statement of deductions within thirty days of move-out and return of the balance within forty-five, and Chicago's ordinance adds interest on the deposit, a required summary attached to the lease, and damages measured in multiples of the deposit. For commercial property, the recurring items are accessibility under the ADA, the zoning and occupancy conditions on the permitted use, and the fire and life-safety inspections the municipality runs. Association managers must be licensed by the state.
First we read the notice provision, because in Illinois the case is won or lost on whether the statutory notice was correct and properly served. For a rent default the sequence is a five-day notice, then a complaint for possession and rent under the Eviction Act, heard on a summary calendar. For other breaches the ten-day notice and the cure question come first. Association disputes follow the declaration's enforcement procedure and the Act's notice-and-hearing rule. Most matters settle on a payment plan or an agreed surrender, documented in an agreed order that can be enforced without a second lawsuit.
Legal guidance for commercial property transactions, acquisitions, development, and financing, the negotiation and contractual work behind business real estate.
Explore →Counsel for condominium and community associations and their owners on governing documents, operational responsibilities, and the obligations of shared ownership.
Explore →Dispute resolution and litigation across real estate matters, including landlord-tenant conflicts, contract disputes, and the disagreements that arise in managing property.
Explore →Land use planning, zoning compliance, and development counsel, coordinating the regulatory requirements that govern how property may be built and used.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
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