Hi, I co-manage a restaurant and we recently experienced a major water leak in our commercial unit. This was the third leak we’ve had, and the most severe — it affected our kitchen, bathrooms, prep area, storage, and dining space. Water was leaking from ceiling lights, walls, and above our steamer machine, and it caused damage to food and equipment. We temporarily closed the restaurant out of concern for health code compliance and customer safety. Our landlord insists we are in default of our lease because we closed without receiving an official order from the health department. However, we’ve requested a formal written report from the landlord’s contractors or maintenance team to confirm the unit is dry, safe, and fully repaired. We’ve only received informal emails. Here are some ke
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Hello there Jenny! I’m so sorry for this situation. I can imagine how frustrating this must be. Here are the answers to your questions: 1. In my legal opinion you aren’t in breach. Based on the document, the intent of the operating hours was based on you not operating outside those hours like a 24 hour situation. The idea is to make sure the business operates within a timeframe so if doesn’t disturb other tenants or invite people to the property at 2am. 2. The landlord can demand you reopen, but the law doesn’t require you to meet that demand. The landlord would need to find some rule stating that you have to reopen despite what’s going on and I can’t find anything to suggest this. 3. This question seemed to be premised on the idea that you can’t stop operating. As such, since repairs are on the landlord, whether you receive clearance won’t matter. The lease doesn’t require clearance of any kind at all. You can demand if, but it’s not specifically required or obligated for the landlord to approve it. They just have a duty to begin repairs as soon as possible. 4. One of the things that I recommend is that you could tell the landlord that the purpose of section 10 was to just create a framework for the operating hours of the restaurant. The purpose was not to require that the restaurant be open under every possible circumstance. You can level with the landlord and explain to them that the risks to the community and staff is too great and a court would probably find this to be an extenuating circumstance. Finally, what I would do is just ask the landlord when they plan to begin repairs, who they hired to begin repairs, their contact information, whether those people are licensed, bonded, and insured, and then ask the landlord, whether they have any creative solutions regarding this.
Hello Dolan, thank you for your response. I should've sent you dates of when this happened. The first leak happened may 8th, second leak may 24 and the worse one happened may 25. The restaurant has been closed by then. We have been asking the landlord for proper documentation over and over again but he states that the emails that he has sent us confirming that everything has been repaired is the only thing we need as proof. Im attaching the last email he sent today. In the document everything that is marked in red its the landlord's response.
Ok got it! If that is the case, then my recommendation would be to just hire somebody yourself to come and inspect the property. This may cost a couple of hundred bucks, but it would allow you to get back to work as soon as possible, it would allow you to have some peace of mind from somebody that you trust instead of relying on the landlord, you can go to yelp.com to find people that can perform this kind of work usually within a week, and if the city or county has some sort of issue, then you could have something in writing from the contractor stating that the property is fine and safe for human occupation. As a bonus tip, you could use it as a write off on your taxes because it is a legitimate business expense.