Commercial and industrial rental property needs a landlord tenant attorney on both ends: transactions, meaning the leases, amendments, guaranties, and workouts that set the terms, and disputes, where defaulted rent, contested operating costs, holdovers, and broken guaranties turn into real money. VK Law does both across California. We do not take residential landlord-tenant matters, for either side.
- Commercial landlord-tenant disputes are contract fights first: the lease usually controls, which is why the lease deserves a lawyer before signature.
- California gave small “qualified commercial tenants” new statutory protections in 2025; landlords’ standard forms and practices need to honor them.
- Even in commercial tenancies, self-help, lockouts, utility shutoffs, is not a lawful substitute for the court eviction process.
- We handle commercial and industrial properties only: disputes and transactions. Nothing residential.
- To talk with VK Law, call 877-780-4727. The consultation is free.
The Transactional Side
Most landlord-tenant disputes were drafted years before they were filed. We negotiate and draft commercial and industrial leases, amendments, renewals, and workout agreements (see our California commercial lease attorney page), and we keep landlords compliant with the disability-access (CASp) disclosure rules and the 2025 protections for qualified commercial tenants under Civil Code section 1950.9.
Disputes We Handle
- Rent defaults and workouts: nonpayment, deferral negotiations, and enforcement when negotiation fails.
- Operating-cost and CAM reconciliation fights: contested pass-throughs, missing backup, audit-right disputes.
- Holdovers: tenants staying past expiration, and the rent and damages questions that follow.
- Unauthorized assignments and sublets, transfers the lease did not permit.
- Abandonment, tenants who disappear mid-term, and the correct steps for retaking and re-letting the space.
- Guaranty enforcement: pursuing the personal or corporate guarantors behind a defaulted lease.
- Use, nuisance, and maintenance disputes: conflicts over what the space may be used for and who must fix what.
Commercial Evictions (Unlawful Detainer)
When a commercial tenancy has to end and the tenant will not leave, California requires the unlawful detainer process: a lawsuit, not a locksmith. The track is fast but technical: a notice whose three days exclude weekends and judicial holidays, with contents prescribed by Code of Civil Procedure section 1161; a complaint the tenant must answer within 10 court days under section 1167; a priority trial setting; and, on judgment, a writ of possession the sheriff enforces. Most losses trace to defective notices (wrong amounts, wrong service, wrong periods), and self-help shortcuts convert a routine eviction into the tenant’s damages case. We prosecute commercial unlawful detainers from notice through lockout, and pursue the money judgment behind them.
Nothing Residential
We do not handle residential landlord-tenant matters, not for landlords, not for tenants. Residential tenancies in California sit under their own dense regulatory layer (deposit caps, rent caps, habitability, just-cause rules, local ordinances), and it is a practice we have deliberately chosen not to run. Residential parties can find help through their county court’s self-help center or local legal aid organizations.
Commercial Security Deposits
Commercial deposits are governed mostly by the lease, but not only by the lease. Under Civil Code section 1950.7, a landlord may apply a non-residential deposit only to remedy rent defaults, repair tenant-caused damage, or clean the premises, and must return what remains within 30 days of recovering possession. Bad-faith retention carries statutory penalties on top of actual damages. Deposit fights are small in dollars and large in principle; most settle fast once someone reads the statute to the other side.
The Lease Clauses Disputes Turn On
After years of these cases, the same handful of clauses decides most of them:
- Default and cure: how much notice, how long to cure, and what counts as a non-curable default.
- Remedies: what the landlord may recover after termination, and how future rent is measured and discounted.
- Holdover rate: the multiplied rent a tenant owes for staying past expiration, and whether it was ever negotiated.
- Audit rights, whether the tenant can inspect the books behind CAM and operating-cost charges.
- Guaranty scope, who signed, for how much, for how long, and whether amendments extended it.
- Assignment consent: the standard the landlord must meet when refusing a transfer.
- Estoppels and SNDAs: the certificates lenders and buyers demand, which can lock a party into positions taken carelessly.
We negotiate these clauses on the way in and litigate them on the way out, which is exactly why the same firm should do both.
How We Help
We read the lease first, tell you where it actually puts you, resolve what negotiation can resolve, and litigate what it cannot. On the front end, we write the lease terms that make the next dispute shorter. Commercial landlord-tenant work is part of our broader California real estate practice.
To talk with VK Law about a commercial property dispute, call 877-780-4727. The consultation is free.
Reviewed by Alan Khalfin, Managing Partner (California). Last reviewed: July 8, 2026.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. VK Law’s landlord-tenant practice is commercial and industrial property only: disputes and transactions. We do not take residential matters for landlords or tenants. Residential parties can find help through their county court’s self-help center or local legal aid.
No. Even in commercial tenancies, self-help eviction, changing locks, cutting utilities, removing property, is unlawful and can hand the tenant a damages claim. The lawful path is the unlawful detainer process, which is fast when the paperwork is done right.
The process is built for speed: notice periods run in days, the tenant’s response window is 10 court days, and trials get priority settings. An uncontested case can conclude in weeks. Clean notices and correct service are what actually determine the pace.
The annual true-up of common-area maintenance and operating costs, where the landlord reconciles estimated charges against actual expenses. Disputes arise over what the lease lets the landlord pass through, whether the backup supports the numbers, and whether the tenant’s audit rights were honored.
Under California law effective January 1, 2025, it is a microenterprise, a restaurant with fewer than 10 employees, or a nonprofit with fewer than 20 employees that gives the landlord written notice of its status. Qualified tenants get added protections, including limits on building operating-cost pass-throughs.
Yes. The transactional side (lease drafting, negotiation, amendments, renewals, and workouts for commercial, multi-tenant, and industrial property) is half the practice, and it is how most of these disputes get prevented.
A holdover. Most commercial leases set a multiplied holdover rent for exactly this moment; if yours does not, the fight is over what the occupancy is worth. If the tenant will not leave and negotiation fails, the unlawful detainer process resolves possession, and the holdover clause resolves the price.
A signed statement, usually demanded by a buyer or lender: in which a tenant or landlord confirms the lease terms, the rent, and whether any defaults exist. It binds the signer, so a carelessly signed estoppel can waive real claims. Leases typically set a short deadline to return one, making quick review essential.
