Property with Billboard lease, easement and lien

[Daniel Lioz]

Hello BP community,

I have a question about re-negotiating a billboard lease after the property sale. I am currently looking at a nice property that has a very strange (to me) contract for billboard lease.  The lease has an easement to the property (to the whole property), has a lien on the property, has a lease that carries over with the new owners and has not expiration date. All the leasing company does is pay the property taxes and insurance, with no compensation to the owner directly.  There is no survey with the leasing/lien agreement so the easement is described as to the whole property, and thus since the billboard is closer to the frontage of the road, it will limit the entrance development from the freeway.  The only way to break the lease is with BOTH parties agreeing 30 days in advance.  The original lease was signed for $10 about 15 years ago.  

This just seems like a crazy type of lease and if anyone had seen anything similar to this in the past?? The property looks very promising for commercial use as well as a better billboard, but the lease gives me great hesitation in my purchase offer.

TIA!

[Tom Gimer]

The owner should hire an attorney to file a declaratory judgment action seeking to strike the easement and “lien” (whatever that means, it makes no sense) on the grounds that it is unconscionable and creates an unreasonable restraint on alienation.