Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I share an office suite with 3 people. We each have separate leases and offices but share a common waiting area, kitchen and utility area. Three of us are psychotherapists. The other occupant has a workers compensation practice where he sees claimants for a one time only evaluation. Our patients use the waiting room for about 10-15 minutes before their appointments. The other tenant is using the waiting room for his claimants to do psychological testing so that there may be one to two people who are sitting in the room taking tests for for 2 hours. Sometimes they bring family members who then are in the waiting room for 4 or more hours as the claimant is being examined. This tenant also uses interpreters who interpret the tests for the claimants, making it very noisy for our patients. Sometimes there will be people in the office doing testing and he is not even in the office. These people leave their tests in the waiting room and one of us has to clean it up. If it is after hours, the office is unlocked if he has someone who has been testing. We are getting complaints from our patients about the state of the waiting room and we feel that the professionalism of the office is being compromised. The landlord has asked this person to stop the use of interpreters but has not made any attempt to remedy the other conditions. We have in our lease that we are entitled to "quiet enjoyment" and in the event of any tenant disputes, they have the final say over what is acceptable. Are the circumstances listed above a violation of "quiet enjoyment" and how should we procede?
3 Answers from Attorneys
It seems pretty clear that the WC practice is usurping the waiting room and making it a part of the practice office. That would, in fact, be a breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, even if it were silent. You should file a formal complaint with the landlord clearly stating that allowing one tenant to effectively expand his office into the waiting room is a breach of the lease. If he does not do anything about it, you will have to file an action for injunctive relief and breach of contract.
In legalese, the term "quiet enjoyment" has nothing to do with noise levels. It means that you shall have possession of your leased premises free from legal challenges as to your right of possession. Compare this expression with "quiet title" which is often used as a verb phrase but is also a noun phrase and refers to unchallenged, unquestioned legal title.
Many commercial leases are (and rightfully so) written tightly enough to forbid this kind of abuse of common-area privileges. Even if yours doesn't (check it), I would think a complaint to management under some non-specific lease provision dealing with tenant disputes is well warranted -- but it's not a "quiet enjoyment" issue as those words are meant in a lease.
Not 'quiet enjoyment' [see above], but it is probably a breach of lease and your rights to use of your premises that could be used to force the landlord to take action to remedy or evict him. It might be resolved with litigation if the landlord understands you and your attorney mean business when confronting him with a 'demand' to correct. Your final resort is to file suit. If serious about pursuing this, feel free to contact me.
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