When you, as a landlord, ink a lease with a commercial tenant, you obviously hope the tenant’s business succeeds. Sometimes, though, that doesn’t happen. Failure happened a lot during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When your tenant gives up on their business and abandons the property they leased, you, as the landlord, have certain rights. When it comes to situations involving an abandoning tenant and negotiating a legal “surrender,” you should proceed with caution to avoid diminishing your potential unpaid rent recovery. That caution includes reaching out to a knowledgeable Atlanta landlord-tenant lawyer.
In 2008, we heard about the phrase “jingle mail,” which refers to “underwater” homeowners who gave up their homes by simply mailing the keys back to the bank. In a similar vein, sometimes your commercial tenant may give up and demonstrate that simply by — with no warning — evacuating the property and mailing the keys back to you.
When that happens (or your commercial tenant engages in similar acts of unannounced and unplanned abandonment of the property,) it is vitally important to understand a few things, including the concept of “surrender” and what, under Georgia law, does or does not constitute a surrender. A landlord-tenant case from here in Atlanta shines some light on these important concepts.