Are you a private or government wireless site landlord who has been approached by your wireless tenant, or a firm representing your tenant, demanding you cut the rent and/or significantly change the terms of your wireless lease?
This often-odious practice is called “Lease Optimization.”
Not surprisingly, usually the only valuable optimization is for the wireless company tenant.
The usual implied or actual threat is that if you don’t give the concessions demanded, your wireless tenant may invoke a unspecified clause in the lease to walk away, perhaps on 30 days notice or less. The implication is that you’ll lose out on all of your future site income if you don’t give in now.
The larger wireless firms often use use third-party firms to do their lease optimization bidding. Two of the major players are Black Dot Wireless and Md7, but there are others as well.
If you’re contacted, it’s quite possible that they’ll tell you something like this: Your wireless tenant has ‘other sites in the area,’ or because of ‘economic conditions’ or because of ‘changes in the wireless industry’ your wireless tenant no longer have a pressing need for the site they lease from you, but (and here’s the kicker) if you agree to cut the rent and perhaps give other concessions, they’ll select a different site to close down. It’s your lucky day!
Sometimes in trade, the wireless tenant will offer a ‘rent guarantee period.’ During the guarantee period, the carrier will agree–essentially–not to walk away from the lease or try to reduce the payments again for a period time, often for between 3 and 10 years.
You’re likely to be subjected to high pressure sales tactics. A frequent one is to get a call from the representative at the optimizing firm saying somethings like, ‘I need your decision right now…we’re going in to a meeting in 30 minutes to discuss the future of your site.’
We have private and government clients who have faced this vexing dilemma, and we’ve helped them survive and thrive in the face of this type of frontal assault on their existing leases. We know how to learn if the story being told is true–and usually this is not the case–or if it’s just a ploy to squeeze the landlord using techniques that may well be legally improper.
We’re ready to help you, the wireless site landlord, fight off these often-baseless demands.
If you get a call from your wireless tenant, or their representative, seeking a rent cut or rent vacation, please call us toll free on (855) Cell-Site (855-235-5748 ) for an initial no-charge consultation-
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