After scanning thousands of contracts, patterns emerge. The same provisions show up in lease after lease, written in ways that favor landlords so consistently that it's clearly not accidental. These are the seven clauses that trigger the most flags — and the ones most tenants sign without reading carefully.
The most common high-severity flag we see is a holdover clause set at 200% of base rent combined with "any portion thereof" language. Together, these two provisions mean that one extra day past your lease expiration date costs you a full month at double rent.
On a $5,000/month commercial space, that's $10,000 for a single day of overstay. On a $12,000/month lease, it's $24,000.
The 200% rate alone is aggressive but common. The "any portion thereof" language is what makes it dangerous — it eliminates proration entirely and turns a minor scheduling problem into a major financial one. We flag this combination as high severity in every contract where it appears, regardless of lease type.
An unlimited personal guaranty with no time limit or burn-off provision is the clause that generates the most "extreme risk" scores on commercial leases. It means the business owner is personally liable for the full remaining lease obligation from the moment of default to the end of the term — no cap, no exit, no reduction for time served.
On a 7-year commercial lease at $8,000/month, signing an unlimited personal guaranty in year one means your worst-case personal exposure is $672,000 — even if your business closes in year two and the LLC has no assets.
We flag this in every commercial lease where it appears without a rolling limit or burn-off clause. It's the single provision that most directly threatens personal financial security, and it's also one of the most negotiable — landlords routinely accept rolling 12–18 month limits for tenants with reasonable credit histories.
A CAM clause with no defined exclusions and no annual increase cap is a flag we see in the majority of retail and office leases. The landlord's template version of this clause is essentially open-ended: Tenant pays its proportionate share of all operating expenses, as determined by Landlord.
That language gives the landlord discretion to include capital improvements, management fees at whatever percentage they choose, costs related to vacant space, and administrative expenses that have nothing to do with maintaining the common areas you actually use.
Without exclusions in writing, you have no contractual basis to dispute any of it at reconciliation time. The year-end true-up invoice is whatever the landlord calculates.
We flag the absence of these three specific exclusions: capital expenditures, management fees above 5% of operating expenses, and costs associated with leasing vacant space. We also flag the absence of an annual CAM increase cap. Getting these four items into the lease before you sign changes your exposure meaningfully over a 5-year term.
Restoration clauses requiring tenants to return commercial space to its original condition at lease expiration — removing all improvements, patching all walls, restoring original fixtures — appear in a significant portion of commercial leases and generate flags whenever they lack explicit carve-outs.
The issue isn't the concept. It's the scope. A blanket restoration obligation with no carve-outs means every improvement you make over the lease term — the flooring you installed, the partition walls you built, the lighting you upgraded — needs to come out when you leave, at your expense. For a tenant who spent $50,000 on buildout, restoration can add $15,000–$30,000 in unexpected exit costs.
We flag restoration clauses that don't specify which improvements must be removed, don't include an "as-is surrender" option, and don't require the landlord to identify required removals in writing within 30 days of lease execution. Landlords often prefer to inherit a built-out space — they just don't volunteer to say so in the lease.
"Landlord's consent, which may be withheld in Landlord's sole and absolute discretion" is language we flag in virtually every lease where it appears. It gives the landlord an unconditional veto over your ability to exit the lease through assignment or subletting — which are the two most practical exit paths when a business needs to close or sell before the lease term ends.
The practical consequence: if your business fails in year three of a 7-year lease and you find a creditworthy replacement tenant willing to take over your space, the landlord can say no. For any reason. Or no reason. And you remain on the hook for four more years of rent.
"Not unreasonably withheld, conditioned, or delayed" is the standard that protects tenants. The difference between these two phrases is the difference between having an exit path and not having one.
A monetary default cure period of three days or fewer appears in landlord-drafted leases regularly and generates a flag every time. Three calendar days — not business days — to cure a missed payment means that a wire transfer delayed by a banking holiday, an ACH that didn't process, or an accounting oversight can put you in formal default before you've had a realistic chance to fix it.
If your lease includes an acceleration clause — and many commercial leases do — formal default can trigger acceleration of the remaining lease obligation, meaning the full remaining rent for the entire lease term becomes immediately due. On a lease with 4 years remaining at $6,000/month, that's $288,000 accelerated and due now.
Five business days is the minimum we recommend for monetary defaults. Thirty days for non-monetary defaults, with an extension if the cure reasonably requires more time. These are standard in well-negotiated leases and the ask is not unusual.
Force majeure clauses that excuse the landlord's performance obligations but explicitly exclude tenant rent payment obligations from force majeure protection are a flag we see in most commercial leases — and one of the clauses most tenants don't think about until a crisis makes it suddenly relevant.
The clause typically reads something like: "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, Tenant's obligation to pay Rent shall not be excused by any Force Majeure Event." This was standard boilerplate before 2020. After 2020, when commercial tenants across the country discovered that government-mandated closures didn't excuse their rent under these clauses, it became a provision tenants are pushing back on more actively.
We flag asymmetric force majeure in every commercial lease. The ask — proportional rent abatement during government-mandated closures that prevent business operations — is harder to get than the other items on this list, because landlords have legitimate financing obligations that don't pause during force majeure events. But partial abatement for true government-ordered closures is a reasonable position, and more landlords are accepting it post-2020 than were accepting it before.
These seven clauses have something in common beyond being landlord-favorable: they're all written to be invisible until they're expensive.
A 200% holdover clause has no cost until the day after your lease expires. An unlimited personal guaranty has no visible impact until your business fails. A restoration obligation with no carve-outs looks like standard lease language until move-out day, when the bill arrives.
The leverage to change any of these provisions exists exactly once: before you sign. Once you're in the lease, the only option is to comply or litigate. Compliance is expensive. Litigation is more expensive.
Every one of these clauses is negotiable — not always successfully, but negotiable. Landlords accept rollbacks on all seven regularly, particularly for tenants who are otherwise attractive. The ask has to come from a position of knowing what you're looking at, which is why scanning your lease before negotiations start matters. LiabilityScore™ flags all seven of these automatically, explains what each one means in plain English, and tells you exactly what to ask for. Upload your contract before you sign — not after you have a problem.
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This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. LiabilityScore™ identifies potentially risky contract terms — it is not a substitute for review by a licensed attorney. Always consult qualified legal counsel for advice specific to your situation.