Is An Estoppel Certificate Effective?
Despite the importance of the estoppel certificate, and often the obligation of one party to a lease to provide one, it is a document that landlords generally do not require to be delivered as a matter of course. While sophisticated landlords will go to the trouble and expense of having annual financial statements prepared and lenders will require their borrowers to submit financial information regarding their properties on a recurring basis, landlords, for the most part, do not require tenants to deliver estoppel certificates on any regular basis. Why is this? Probably the main reason is that landlords do not want to put in the effort necessary to obtain estoppel certificates. Since the certificate would not “estop” a tenant from asserting a claim different than set forth in the estoppel certificate unless the landlord relied upon it, landlords inadvertently may be making a good business judgment. Even if the estoppel certificate purports to (and does) amend the terms of the lease for
