Can I recover anything....

[RNCTN]

Here is a stickey situation that I need some thoughts on.


My company recently was out looking for new office space. We are a small company 5 employees locally (others are remote). We found the perfect location, etc. We signed a Letter of Intent, but it states it is not binding. We were scheduled to move in to the new office space 5/27 and all plans and preparations have been made, new letterhead, business cards, signs, etc. We have actively been working with the agent of the realty company to make appropriate changes and addendums to the lease agreement for about a week.

Now, I get a call yesterday afternoon...that the realty company does not even own the building NOR does the people they were trying to lease it for! They will not be able to close on the office space as their purchase...until at least August due to financing! I can't believe this. They were trying to get the lease in place for something they didn't even own yet!

I don't know what to do. I can't tell you the amount of money and marketing that has been done on the new location. I am out thousands of dollars due to this. Although you may say well you should have waited until the ink dried...it is obvious that there were agreements...we have real estate agents on both sides and have plenty of emails and such that state this is a done deal. The lease hasn't been signed, they were updating the last addendum just yesterday morning. I guess they didn't realize they were not going to close until yesterday afternoon. We were suppose to sign the lease today!

What do I do? Is it legal for these people to have been even having the discussions with me to the point we had gotten to when they didn't even own the space? Is there anything that I can recover on my costs I am out?

Thoughts? Any ... please....

They should not have been having discussions about renting out a space they haven't closed on yet. And yes, you shouldn't have done the ground work until you had signed on the lease. But ... you may still be able to sal***e the situation. Contact the current owner of the property and tell them the buyer was going to rent to you. Ask the current owner if he would rent to you and sign a lease with you in the interum. If the buyer was really willing to rent to you anyways, it would just mean that you are already in place and they just take over your lease. This would allow you to go ahead and move into the property and the owner could go ahead and sell the property to the same buyer. It would be a win - win for everyone involved. The owner could collect some rent until the sale went through. The buyer would already have you in place as a tenant. And you would still be able to move in within a timely manner.

[RNCTN]

We have contacted him. He is holding it for the other people to get the financing that they need. This may take 60-90 days.

Anyone else have any thoughts or ideas? Is there any way to recover anything? We have plenty of emails and the signed Letter of Intent, and were due at lease signing this past Friday...this was a done deal.

As you said yourself,

"We signed a Letter of Intent, but it states it is not binding."

You have no binding agreement so they have not violated anything. You cannot recover anything since they have violated no binding agreement. Next time, don't count your chickens before they're hatched. I'm afraid you're just out the money.