Friday, May 9, 2014

The Original Lease



It is very important for a commercial landlord in Virginia to retain an original, signed copy of every lease within its portfolio.  By “original”, we mean a copy of the lease containing the tenant’s “wet ink” signature.  If a landlord tries to enforce a non-original copy of the lease in Court, the landlord may have trouble admitting the lease into evidence.  The reason is that Virginia Courts follow the “best evidence rule” and require the production of original documents when available.  There are exceptions to this rule (for example, if the lease is lost, destroyed or cannot be retrieved without great inconvenience), but if the tenant objects to the authenticity of the photocopy and denies that it is a true and accurate copy of the original, the landlord could run into problems. Furthermore, many Judges in Virginia will not award attorney fees to the landlord in the absence of an original lease, even if the photocopy is admitted into evidence.
 

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