A friend’s son came to see us for help in dealing with his commercial landlord. Our client had spent over six figures renovating hotel rooms and raising the revenue from zero to a substantial sum. After he completed his renovations and brought the hotel to profitability, the landlord gave him a thirty-day notice to quit. (It was an oral tenancy.)
We offered an Initial Case Evaluation. He used the strategy we suggested to negotiate with his landlord. His landlord said, “You raped me, but we have a child together so I guess we will be married for a while.” This was all hyperbole by the landlord, who had been unable to operate the hotel profitably himself. Their “child” was the profitable hotel. Here are some lessons from this experience:
- An oral agreement is usually not worth the paper it’s printed on—but it can be when backed up by other evidence.
- Our Initial Case Evaluation can often solve the client’s problem or return many times the client’s fee. In this case, our solution will bring the client about twenty times our fee – every month!
- If you have a profitable arrangement and the other party is making money too, that’s the best recipe for a long and happy business relationship. Don’t try to kill the deal because you think the other party is making “too much” money. That’s what the landlord tried to do here.
Yes. We will earn a good fee for our guidance and advice. That’s ok. You will earn a good return on the money invested in our fee.