Responsibility for repairs in a commercial lease is set by the lease itself, not by statute. As a general matter, landlords handle the building’s structure and major systems while tenants handle the interior of their space and any damage they cause, but the lease can redraw that line in either direction. In a triple net arrangement, almost everything shifts to the tenant. In a gross lease, almost everything stays with the landlord. The signed document is where the answer lives.
The Lease Controls, Not State Law
Commercial leases are treated very differently from residential ones. Courts in most jurisdictions enforce the written terms as negotiated and are reluctant to imply protective duties on either side. Some states recognize an implied warranty of suitability, which prevents a landlord from leasing space with serious hidden defects that make it unusable for its purpose, but the doctrine is not universal and typically applies only to extreme situations such as persistent roof leaks, major plumbing failures, or nonfunctional HVAC in office space.
That makes the “Repairs and Maintenance” (or “Maintenance and Alterations”) section of the lease the single most important place to look. If the lease says the tenant handles HVAC, the tenant handles HVAC, regardless of how other tenants in the same building are treated. Assumptions about how things usually work carry no weight when the language is clear.
What the Landlord Usually Pays For
Across most lease types, the landlord stays responsible for the building shell: the roof, foundation, exterior walls, and load-bearing elements. These are capital items that tenants did not bargain to replace when they signed a lease for usable space.
Landlords also typically maintain the major building systems that serve the whole property or multiple tenants, including the primary HVAC system, main plumbing lines, and core electrical infrastructure up to the point where it connects to an individual tenant’s space. In a multi-tenant building, these shared systems affect everyone, so centralized control makes practical sense. Unless the lease explicitly transfers them, these obligations stay with the landlord.
Latent Defects
A latent defect is a hidden problem that existed before move-in and could not have been found through a reasonable inspection, such as a concealed foundation crack, mold inside a sealed wall cavity, or deteriorating pipes behind finished surfaces. When a landlord knew about a defect and concealed it, courts have held the landlord liable for repair costs. Most well-drafted leases carve out latent defects as the landlord’s responsibility even when maintenance duties otherwise shift broadly to the tenant. Tenants should confirm this carve-out is in writing.
Environmental Hazards
Hazardous materials add another layer. Under the federal NESHAP regulations issued under the Clean Air Act, building owners must identify asbestos-containing materials before any renovation or demolition and notify the appropriate state agency before disturbing them. These obligations fall on the building owner because the owner controls the structure. If asbestos is discovered during a renovation, federal law requires licensed contractors to perform the removal.
Asbestos management generally remains with the landlord. But when the lease gives the tenant control over interior construction, the tenant can pick up compliance obligations for anything that construction disturbs. The lease should say who pays for environmental testing and remediation, because an unexpected abatement project can run into six figures.
What the Tenant Usually Pays For
Tenants are responsible for the interior of the leased space. That covers non-structural elements like drywall, flooring, paint, interior doors, and fixtures, along with routine upkeep: changing light bulbs, cleaning, maintaining interior plumbing fixtures, and generally keeping the space in good condition.
Damage caused by the tenant, its employees, or its customers beyond normal wear and tear is also the tenant’s bill. Normal wear covers gradual deterioration from ordinary use (faded paint, minor carpet wear, small scuff marks). A tenant who punches a hole in a wall or lets a sink overflow and damage the floor cannot claim that as wear. Photographs of the space taken before move-in help settle later disputes about which side of that line a given problem falls on.
How Lease Type Shifts the Line
The starting allocation above moves depending on how the lease is structured.
Triple Net (NNN) Lease
A triple net lease pushes the broadest range of costs onto the tenant. The tenant pays base rent plus real estate taxes, building insurance, and most maintenance and repair expenses. HVAC servicing, lighting, landscaping, parking lot upkeep, and pest control all land on the tenant. Depending on how aggressively the lease was negotiated, even some structural work can be pushed down. Major repairs to the roof, foundation, and exterior walls usually remain the landlord’s capital expense, but some NNN leases shift partial roof repairs or similar costs to the tenant. Read every line.
Gross Lease
A gross lease flips the arrangement. The tenant pays a single fixed rent and the landlord absorbs operating expenses, including property taxes, insurance, and most repair costs. The tenant still handles the interior of its own space and any damage it causes, but the landlord takes on building systems, structure, and common areas. This structure is common in multi-tenant office buildings where the landlord wants centralized control.
Modified Gross Lease
A modified gross lease splits the difference, and the split is whatever the parties negotiate. One modified gross lease might require the tenant to pay a pro rata share of common area maintenance while the landlord covers structural repairs and insurance. Another might flip those obligations. There is no industry-standard allocation, which is why these agreements often take several rounds to finalize.
Repairs vs. Replacements: The Biggest Dispute
The distinction between routine maintenance and capital expenditures drives more fights than almost any other repair issue. Routine maintenance keeps something running in its current condition: replacing filters, patching a small roof leak, servicing an HVAC unit. A capital expenditure replaces or substantially upgrades the asset itself: a new roof, a full HVAC replacement, overhauling the electrical infrastructure.
In most lease structures, landlords bear capital expenditures while tenants handle routine maintenance. The boundary gets blurry fast. Is replacing a compressor in a 15-year-old HVAC unit a repair or the first step toward an inevitable full replacement? Leases that leave these terms undefined invite expensive arguments. Better-drafted leases set a dollar threshold (for example, any single repair exceeding $5,000 is treated as a capital expense and falls to the landlord) or reference generally accepted accounting principles to draw the line.
Tenants in NNN leases face the most exposure. If your NNN lease requires you to “maintain, repair, and replace” building systems, you could be on the hook for an entire HVAC replacement. A cap on annual repair costs, or language that clearly separates repair from replacement, limits that risk.
Common Area Maintenance in Multi-Tenant Buildings
In multi-tenant properties, many repair costs flow through common area maintenance (CAM) charges rather than going to a single tenant. CAM covers lobby upkeep, parking lot maintenance, landscaping, janitorial services, lighting in hallways and common areas, and sometimes security. Each tenant pays a pro rata share, typically calculated by dividing the tenant’s leased square footage by the building’s total leasable square footage.
CAM charges deserve close scrutiny because they can quietly absorb costs tenants did not anticipate. Some landlords fold in administrative fees, management fees, or even capital improvement costs. The lease should specify which expenses qualify as CAM, cap annual increases, and exclude capital expenditures unless the parties explicitly agreed otherwise. Audit rights matter too: without them, you are taking the landlord’s word on how much was actually spent, and overcharges are more common than tenants realize.
ADA and Building Code Costs
Some repair-type obligations come from law rather than the lease. The Americans with Disabilities Act exposes both landlords and tenants of commercial properties serving the public to liability. The duty to remove architectural barriers in existing facilities falls on whoever operates the public accommodation, which generally means the tenant for the leased space and the landlord for common areas, though a disabled visitor can look to either party.
When a tenant renovates, the ADA requires the altered portions to be made accessible to the maximum extent feasible. If the renovation affects a primary function area, the path of travel to it, along with restrooms, telephones, and drinking fountains serving it, must also be made accessible, provided the cost is not disproportionate to the overall renovation.1GovInfo. 42 USC 12183 – New Construction and Alterations in Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities The lease should allocate these costs clearly.
Code upgrades raise a similar question. When a municipality updates fire safety, electrical, or plumbing codes, someone has to pay for compliance. Most leases assign shell-and-structure code costs to the landlord and in-space code costs to the tenant, but this varies. A tenant who signs without addressing code compliance can get caught mid-tenancy by a new fire sprinkler requirement with no clear answer about who pays.
Casualty Repairs and Insurance Need to Match
Repair duties should line up with insurance coverage. The party obligated to rebuild after a fire, flood, or storm should be the party holding the policy that covers the loss. When they do not match, one side has the duty to repair while the other collects the proceeds, which is a surprisingly common defect in landlord-drafted leases.
In multi-tenant buildings, the landlord typically carries property insurance for the structure and common areas and passes the premium through as an operating expense. The tenant carries insurance for its own contents, business interruption, and liability. In a single-tenant NNN lease, the landlord may require the tenant to carry property insurance directly. Either way, the lease should set a maximum deductible, because a landlord who picks a $50,000 deductible to lower premiums effectively shifts risk to the tenant when the tenant pays deductibles.
Most commercial leases include a mutual waiver of subrogation, so neither party’s insurer can sue the other after paying a claim. Some leases extend the waiver to cover deductibles. Without this language, a landlord’s insurer could theoretically pursue a tenant for repair costs even when the damage was not the tenant’s fault.
If the Landlord Won’t Make Repairs
Commercial tenants have fewer automatic protections than residential tenants, so remedies for landlord inaction depend heavily on the lease.
Self-Help Clauses
A self-help clause lets the tenant make a repair the landlord has failed to make and deduct the cost from future rent. This right does not exist automatically; it has to be in the lease. The usual structure requires written notice, a cure period (often 10 to 30 days), and then the tenant can proceed. Self-help clauses generally cover maintenance and services affecting the tenant’s space, not capital improvements or structural work.
Without a self-help provision, do not withhold rent or deduct costs on your own. In most jurisdictions, a commercial tenant who withholds rent without contractual authorization risks eviction for nonpayment, even when the landlord was clearly obligated to fix the problem.
Constructive Eviction
When a landlord’s failure to repair makes the space genuinely unusable for its intended business purpose, the tenant may have a claim for constructive eviction. The threshold is high. A drafty window will not qualify. A collapsed ceiling or a months-long sewage backup likely will.
The catch: in most jurisdictions, constructive eviction requires the tenant to actually vacate. A tenant who stays and keeps operating cannot use the doctrine to justify withholding rent. That makes it a nuclear option. Walking out without a solid claim means abandoning the lease and owing the remaining rent, so this is a decision for an attorney before the moving truck is called.
Negotiate Allocation Before You Sign
The time to settle repair costs is before signing, not after a pipe bursts. Useful provisions to push for include an independent inspection of mechanical systems before commencement, paired with a landlord representation that systems are in good working order; a landlord warranty period covering major system failures during the first year or so; a dollar cap on the tenant’s annual repair obligations in NNN leases; an explicit latent defect carve-out; a defined distinction between repair and replacement; assignment of manufacturer warranties for equipment the tenant must maintain; a self-help clause with a defined cure period; and annual CAM audit rights.
Watch for Estoppel Certificates
When the property is sold or refinanced, the buyer or lender will usually ask tenants to sign an estoppel certificate confirming the lease terms and stating whether any disputes or unfulfilled obligations exist. Signing one that says the landlord is in compliance with all repair obligations can wipe out existing claims, because courts in many states treat statements in an estoppel certificate as binding even when they conflict with the original lease. Read every estoppel certificate carefully and disclose outstanding repair issues before signing.