I would like help/advice on our predicament. The situation is....
We are a food concessionaire in a food cart business and we entered into contract as a sub-lessee, the sub-lessor is the foodcourt admin. We are leasing a space from them. We got attracted because the lessor told/informed us that there are 1,200 employees on the building and the neighboring carts are earning 5k to 10k daily. However in reality when we're there already there are only about 200 employees eating and the neighbors sales is only 1k to 3k. And now we are experiencing negative profit that cannot even reach the break even.
With these figures we plan to practice pre-termination of leasing space contract. However the conditions of pre-termination is we feel one sided to them only. The conditions are:
1. non refund of the security deposit
2. sub-lessee nevertheless pay the monthly rent until the end of term or until a new tenant is found
3. sub-lessee must find their replacement or sub-lessee shall indemnify sub-lessor for all costs which may have been incurred by sub-lessor in finding new tenant
My queries are:
1. We believed them since we are going into agreement with them as they will practice transparency, nonetheless they have practice fraud to attract us. My question is "will the contract be null and void because of fraud/fraudulence?"
2. The conditions of the pre-termination, is it constitutional or legit or legal? We understand the non-refundable security deposits but for numbers 2 and 3?
3. Isn't it that one of the responsibility of the lessor is to bring in customers? And since they fail in this part, can we practice pre-termination without penalties or following the conditions?
4. If we push with the pre-termination, they might sue us. Will it be court issue with this small matter of leasing space or just with local barangay officials?
5. The fair action we are thinking is to abide number 1 of the pre-termination conditions but not numbers 2 and 3. Is this possible and mandated to be our rights as a sub-lessee?
Your replies is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.