How Do You Find Out If A Ground Lease Tenant Has A Lien Against The Improvements?
You are interested in subleasing a restaurant. The owner of the ground underneath, or the fee owner, is not the same as the owner of the restaurant, or lessee, who acquired the rights to construct the building under a ground lease. Before acquiring the lease, you want to check for yourself to make sure there are no leasehold mortgages, mechanic’s liens or judgments against the leasehold interest. Determine of the name of the lessee. This may be tricky if a restaurant chain has the lease. The name of the restaurant may not be the same as the name of the lessee. (Resource 1) Obtaining a copy of the lease should resolve this issue. Determine the name of the owner of the fee property. This search may be performed by physically traveling to the tax office where the property is located, or by searching online records using the name of the county and “tax records” “revenue commissioner” or “tax collector” as key words. Search the land records in the names of both the fee owner and the leaseho
