The pandemic is anunprecedented event in modern history, and current commercialleases don't have any provisions to properly address it. Realestate attorneys at Nixon Peabody are alreadylooking at how commercial leases can and need to be refined torespond to future events of this magnitude.

"The story is still being written, but there is no doubt thatthere will need to be refinement of existing provisions, and morelikely than not, depending on the types of properties we aretalking about, additional provisions to address the ability to payrent as the result of a pandemic," Justin X.Thompson, an attorney at Nixon Peabody, tellsGlobeSt.com.

There have been some attempts to use force majeure in othercontracts, but those generally don't apply to lease deals or rentalpayments, not to mention other regulations created quickly torespond to the outfall. "A lot of people like to go to the forcemajeure provision, but we have found that a lot of times, thoseprovisions aren't really applicable to the payment of rent itself,"says Thompson. "It is typically excluded from that provision. Whatwe are dealing with is not something, at least in the modern era,that we have had to face on the landlord-tenant front."