A Company Is Preparing To Move Into A New Building, But So Many Red Flags Have Them Desperate To Get Out Of The Lease
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Imagine working for a company that is relocating to a brand new building. You’d think the building would be perfect since it’s brand new, right? There shouldn’t be any problems at all on move in day, right?
In this story, there were so many problems on move in day I lost count. It started with the air conditioning and escalated from there.
Eventually, the company saw so many red flags that they wanted out of their lease. At first, their lawyer didn’t think there was a way out, but then they discovered something that worked in their favor.
Keep reading for all the details.
Slum lord won’t let the company out of a 5 year lease. I get the building condemned.
Backstory:
Our company was moving a remote site to a new building. As the IT guy for the company, I was asked to look at the new building and get network ports marked out.
The landlord refused to put in any low voltage lines, and we got quotes, but they were thousands of dollars.
Enter me, my car, and 4 boxes of cat 6 plenum. It’s about an 8 hour drive, and I was doing about 30 drops. Not a ton, but still, a few days work in someplace that’s already built up. and its drop ceiling with insulation on top. Messy, itchy work.
There’s a big problem.
Story:
Day 1. We get there Monday morning at the start of the month. It’s actually a cool summer morning, and we’re from further south, so no one notices the AC not working for about an hour.
Slowly, the building begins heating up. It gets to 80 by noon, 85 at 3 PM. The rooms with floor to ceiling windows are greenhouses.
It’s absolutely miserable.
But that’s not the only problem.
We’ve been told by the workers still on site that the leasing company was told there was no AC in our building 3 weeks ago.
The other thing is there are STILL WORKERS ON SITE. The building isn’t completed.
So much for being ready for a handover day 1.
The AC was not fixed right away.
Day 2. We’re getting agitated.
Its 80 degrees in the AM when we first walk in. Its sweltering.
The other guy that came up with me is the facilities manager. He’s screaming at people over the phone to fix the freaking AC.
We’re all exhausted from the heat by 3 PM.
I found a 4 foot hole in the ducting when I opened the ceiling tile. The AC was blowing, but there was no cold air. We are told the compressor is broken.
Finally, working AC!
Day 3. More of the same. Miserable in the morning, I’m finally getting the last lines punched in on the patch panel.
The AC guys arrive about 10 AM. They finally fix the unit at 2 PM. We ask them what they did.
They said “A lot of things”
We again said “what did you do”
This is extremely fishy.
The reply was “we can’t tell the tenants”.
RED FLAG ALERT!
We contacted our realtor, she said she would look into what was done. She sends an email later that night that says “they changed the refrigerant from r22 to r410a.”
I tell the facilities guy “No way dude. Thats like putting gas in a diesel motor, they’d have to change out the entire system. They didn’t do that in 4 hours” They basically duct taped and wd-40’d that thing back together and it will run poorly for a month or so, then give out, and we’d be stuck with a replacement.
There are so many problems with this building!
Day 4. Still no running water to some areas, still workers on site, the AC can’t keep up with the noonday sun, and it still hits around 80 by the end of the day. AC runs continuously.
We’re packing up all the stuff we moved in and moving out.
I notice all the fire sprinklers look like they have moved, and the metal protection around the drop tile has fallen to the floor.
The sprinklers are no longer protruding from the tiles in places, in others, they are quite a bit lower than they were.
They want out.
Yep, the AC fools STOOD ON THE FIRE SPRINKLERS to fix their lousy duct work.
We are looking for a friendly way out. We contact the landlord and say “You haven’t delivered a finished building, we’re moving out, the lease is broken”
Landlord has a 36 page lease. Landlord won’t let us out of the lease, its 5 years.
This is NOT starting off well.
It’s pretty bad when a lawyer can’t help you.
We get in contact with the corporate lawyer and the realtor, they both agree we’re kind of in trouble.
We are desperate for any way out.
I start looking at the fire system (I used to run all kinds of low voltage lines, fire, security, etc). There is no fire panel in our portion of the building. No smoke detectors are hooked up to anything.
More red flags.
But they discovered something that might work to their advantage.
One of our employees that was moving the heavy gear says “Oh yeah, I meant to mention, I never saw any building permits anywhere”
DING DING DING. They did this buildout, including demolition, running new plumbing and power lines, and destroying the fire system— WITHOUT A CITY PERMIT.
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Cue the call to city inspectors office.
Let’s see what happens when the city inspector shows up.
Day 5. I wasn’t here for this part, but the facilities manager told me this: “The city inspector pulled the permits for the building. There weren’t any. He finds multiple violations of city code. Red tagged our area, removed the certificate of occupancy. When I told him to check the fire system like you said, he just goes ‘Oh no, no, no, I have to make a call’. He calls the fire marshal.”
Day 8. Fire marshals arrive on scene. Find no active alarm system in our portion of the building. Red tag. Find the sprinker riser for the ENTIRE building in our area. No water pressure. Condemned the entire building.
Basically, they wouldn’t let us out of the building because we signed a lease, even though they never delivered a building in any semblance of working order.
Finally, their lawyer can help them.
Called the building inspector, got them smoked, who then called the fire marshal, who condemned the entire building.
They are still trying to fight us over it, but we’re pushing for them not only refunding our deposit and the rent, which they have already done, but for all the time spent moving gear in and out, and all the wiring.
Our lawyer says they don’t have a leg to stand on, and he’s happy for them to pay his fees as well.
Wow. What’s really crazy is that the landlord thought he could get away with renting out a building built without permits with so many glaring red flags.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
Here’s some praise and sympathy.
Another person loved how the story worked out.
You don’t mess with the fire marshall!
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a fast food employee who shuts down a customer angry about her change with a single word.
Another person shares a story.
When there are lots of red flags, it’s best to stop moving forward and reassess the situation.
Not filing permits is a huge problem. I’m not sure how the landlord thought he could get away with that.
I’m glad the city inspector called the fire marshal.
The landlord must really be regretting his decisions right about now.
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