Category: Blog

Property ownership is more involved than just having a key and a mortgage to pay.  This article will provide an overview of basic terms and rights that define property ownership in the United States. Property law defines Title as a bundle of rights in a piece of property.  A deed is a formal document that…

Municipalities categorize property into different types for a number of reasons, the main one is for city planning to delineate the property’s use.  Obviously the real estate community tries to use similar language to distinguish one type of property from another when working with the public.  Let’s take a look at the various property types…

Is my property in a Flood Zone?  With the crazy amount of rain we had on Long Island recently it is an important question to ask. Below we’ll talk about the different types of flooding and provide some useful information and links to get you on track to figure out how your property could be…

When a tenant is looking for space, fire sprinklers probably won’t make the top ten list of their space criteria, but if you plan to host many people in your space at once, cook, utilize or store potentially flammable materials, you absolutely should be thinking about this critical building system.  Some commercial buildings have fire…

Massive underground lakes called aquifers supply every drop of drinking water in Suffolk and Nassau.  Without getting too deep into earth science and Hydrogeology, I can tell you it is important to protect our aquifers and the health department works very hard to do so by limiting the amount of wastewater that goes into cesspools…

What regulations must my business adhere to?  Most people think of zoning as a catch all.  If the zoning matches my use then I’m good.  Zoning is only the first checkpoint, there are a host of other municipal regulations from the town, county and state ranging from zoning, parking requirements, septic flow, public assembly, and…

How does a landlord evaluate whether a tenant they are signing a lease with will be able to fulfill the obligations? How does a tenant pledge that they will fulfill the lease obligations?  These are the two topics we will discuss in today’s post. Evaluating Tenant Credit Worthiness is an important, but sometimes overlooked step…

When a client asks if they should have an attorney review the lease before signing it, I ALWAYS say YES. Today’s post isn’t going to be lengthy.  My advice on this issue is simple: have an attorney review your lease.  Get a commercial real estate attorney, not a general practice attorney, or residential attorney.  There…

The type of insurance coverage a business owner should maintain is often dictated by a section in the rider to a lease agreement with the landlord.  Below are just a few examples of what to expect and a brief explanation of each. Comprehensive Commercial General Liability Insurance This policy covers the premises protecting both the…

In last week’s post we talked about Lease Commencement Costs.  One of those costs is renovation, and since it is often the largest single cost of moving into a new space, let’s take a closer look. Lucky are the business owners who find a space to lease that fits their needs exactly.  Rare are the…