Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois
I own an office building and my bank tenant and I agreed on an option-to-purchase price when we entered into the 6-year lease 4 years ago. We also agreed that if I sold the building to someone else, I would pay the remaining, unamortized building improvements the bank made.
They just made me a purchase offer that does not agree with the option-to-purchase numbers (it's 31% less) in the signed lease agreement, yet they insist that I will owe them $1 million for their improvement costs - per the lease agreement - if I sell to somebody else.
Can they enforce one part of a written agreement and yet ignore - or unilaterally change - another part of the same agreement?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Technically they cannot ignore a portion of the agreement. However, you need to thoroughly review your lease and any other agreements you have with this tenant to make sure there is not something in those documents that allows them to do what they are trying to do. It is not possible to answer your question definitively without a review of your lease and other relevant documents, if any.
You should have the lease and offer reviewed by counsel in order to obtain a valis opinion.
If the option was properly drafted, a court would normally insist that it be exercised according to its terms, and that any other "offer" would not be valid. So I agree with the above attorney who say you need to have all the paperwork reviewed. And for the kind of money and liability you're talking about, the likelihood is that not doing so would be penny-wise and pound-foolish.
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