Commercial Landlords Beware!

In a precedent setting case issued today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court found that under G.L. c. 186, § 19, after receiving the required notice of an unsafe condition, not caused by the tenant, a landlord of any real estate owes a duty to exercise reasonable care to remedy the unsafe condition. If a tenant or any person lawfully on the premises is injured as a result of the failure to correct the unsafe condition within a reasonable time, the injured party has a right of action in tort against the landlord for damages. A landlord may not obtain a waiver of this duty in any lease or other rental agreement; any such waiver "shall be void and unenforceable. This law is for the first time applied to commercial leases. Previously, it was applied only in the residential real estate setting. The name of the case is Bishop v. TES Realty.