Legal Question in Business Law in New Hampshire

Re: Subleasing laws

Most commercial leases have explicit provisions regarding subleasing. If you actually have the rare case where the lease is silent on subleasing, then the following applies:

The original lessee remains liable for all payments due under the lease; if there is a sublease, then the original lessee is effectively a guarantor of the sublessee's performance. So, yes, the lessor can pursue the prior owner of the business if the new owner fails to make payments due to the lessor.

The purchase agreement between the prior owner and the new owner should have provisions under which the seller can recoup from the buyer for any liabilities (like lease payments) that are enforced against the seller. However, the usual scenario is that the buyer defaults on the obligations to creditors because of insolvency, so the remedy is relatively useless to the seller....

Best wishes,

LDWG