Retail Lease Abandonment

[Scott Boddicker]

Was wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me....A few years ago I entered into a 5yr lease term for a retail location in Texas. I put in a franchise business and ended up selling it a few years in. The guy I sold it to sub let the space from me but I was left on as a personal guarantor. The new guy closed the doors a few years in leaving about 18months left on the lease term. He has been paying all rents and NNN expenses for the last 10 months. The LL has a new possible tenant on the hook and they are looking for us to sign a termination agreement. The agreement does not really let us out of anything in the event the new tenant falls through. If that happens, we are still liable for another 10 months. They have threatened that if we do not sign it the LL will enforce the current lease and start charging us for releasing the space, attorney fees, broker fees, etc. I feel like they need us to terminate the lease in order to get a new long term tenant in there but they are not at all willing to concede anything, ie give us an early termination date that will exist no matter the outcome of the new possible tenant. Sorry for the rant, thought I'd ask. We want to continue to do the right thing but not get screwed by giving up even more and being left with absolutely no options.

THanks!

Scott