In 1998 I talked to Dennis Gura aka Gura Properties about leasing a space from him for a new restaurant I was opening. He took a credit application from me and then subsequently told me I would be signing a "standard" commercial lease.
He went over the terms that it was a 5 year lease with two 5 year renewals. I accepted what he told me. I was a teacher at the time and very excited and nervous about starting a restaurant business. I was also naive as I couldn't imagine that a man that represented himself as a pious person would ever be deceptive. So on the basis of one phone conversation with Dennis Gura I signed the lease after he mailed it to my home without reviewing it.
I sold my home and borrowed $40,0000 to invest $170,000 for the start up and to cover expenses while I built my business. As anyone knows building a new business is difficult. But I had lots of other problems in Dennis Gura's property. The plumbing was so old that I had to close my business 3 times so a plumber could come in and dig up the concrete floor to replace the collapsed pipe. I lost weeks of business because of faulty pipes not only in my business but in the business next door. My neighbor's pipes would back up too and flood into my kitchen. This was in the same building owned by Dennis Gura. Dennis Gura's comment to me was "you still have to pay the full rent for the days you were closed."
But my nightmare really started when not long after I paid off my loans for my business that I was evicted. A provision in the lease stated: "Notwithstanding any other provision of this lease, Landlord may terminate this lease upon 60 days written notice to Tenant that the premises have been sold." I was completely blind sighted. I showed this to my customers who forwarded this "lease" to their attorneys. None of them had ever seen such a provision in a commercial real estate lease. That after selling my home, depleting my savings account and going into debt borrowing money he could kick me out with a 60 day notice. I LOST EVERYTHING.
Dennis Gura calls himself a "real estate businessman". All I can say is, buyer beware!
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