Force Majeure &amp; Escape Clause Provisions in New and Renegotiated Leases Post Covid-19 (Dealing with universities and colleges)
We're  located in a large metro area with a high concentration of visiting  students and for the past 10+ years have done well leasing to  universities and colleges from around the US. Enter Covid.

Our  contracts are up for renewal for 2021 and we're seeing an influx of new  inquiries and possible partnerships as well. Sounds great right?

The  problem is that most of these schools are insisting on penalty free  escape clauses or specifically bringing up Covid in the force majuere  clause as reasons for legal non-performance. I know we are all now  living in a different time but what are other commercial landlords doing  out there for new leases that you might be signing?

Penalty  free escape clauses and naming COVID as a reason to be able to not  perform on our contract seems as if it puts 100% of the risk on our us  vs distributing it evenly. I don't want to lose our partner's business  but I want to be fair to our business, employees and staff.

I'm curious to know how other landlords are protecting their interest yet giving your client the flexibility they want.
[{"id": "fy5hgov", "text": "Do you have some sort of contract with schools? I dont understand how their demands are relevant if they are not directly the tenants", "replies": [{"id": "fy5o61e", "text": "Yes, colleges and universities are our main partners and therefore our agreements are with them. They agree to send us X number of students in return for discounted housing rates for an academic year.", "replies": [{"id": "fy66k8u", "text": "Adjust the discount to reflect your new risk. Tenants have to buy flexibility not just drop in a catch-all clause that releases liability. If you want to give them the flexibility, I\u2019d push for a cancellation/termination penalty as well. Perhaps a pro-rata percentage of outstanding rent. Don\u2019t give up your security for nothing.", "replies": [{"id": "fy7jx5d", "text": "This is what we've plan to do thus far but these big state school budgets don't feel that flexible since they have to work with what their state/fed government gives them budget wise.\n\nI don't want to lose any of there business but I'm trying to be fair to all involved. I was thinking that if they cancel on us then we will instead of forgiving the entire contract we will continue performance once their program has returned.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]