Breaking Up With Your Landlord Is Hard to Do

The lease is among the biggest obligations for most small businesses, and the penalties for breaking one can be steep—as many companies may be on the brink of discovering. Here's what to know if you can't make your rent.

•Your landlord might give you a break. Many landlords are offering some sort of break to tenants who ask—often two or three months of deferred rent, with repayment at the end of the lease. The extent to which your property owner will offer forbearance depends in part on whether the landlord, in turn, has received a break from its lender. Banks and other institutional lenders seem to be more responsive to their borrowers' plight, says George Pincus, a real estate attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But some real estate loans get converted into securities sold into the bond market, where it's far harder for borrowers to plead their case. Those are often the landlords, says Pincus, who aren't accommodating tenants.