Assignment and subletting: what landlords miss
Most commercial leases require landlord consent before a tenant can assign the lease or bring in a subtenant. That part is well understood. What trips landlords up is everything around that one requirement.
Accepting rent can waive the requirement
If a tenant brings in a subtenant or assignee without going through the formal consent process, and the landlord knowingly accepts rent from that new party anyway, courts in many states will treat that as implied consent, even if no one ever signed anything. A landlord who notices an unauthorized occupant and keeps cashing checks rather than formally objecting can end up having waived the exact right the lease was supposed to protect.
"Reasonableness" only applies if the lease says so
Many commercial leases state that the landlord's consent to an assignment "shall not be unreasonably withheld." Under that language, courts generally limit a landlord to objective business reasons, such as the proposed assignee's financial standing or the legality of their intended use, according to a Florida-focused legal explainer on the topic. But that standard isn't automatic. Whether it applies, and what counts as "reasonable" if it does, depends on the lease's exact wording and the state. A landlord who assumes the reasonableness standard always applies, or always doesn't, is guessing.
Recapture rights are easy to forget you have
Some leases give the landlord the option to recapture the space instead of consenting to a proposed assignment or sublease, effectively terminating the lease and taking the space back rather than approving the new tenant. It's real leverage in a negotiation, and landlords sometimes forget it's there until a tenant brings a replacement to the table and the landlord has nothing to counter with beyond a flat yes or no.
None of this is legal advice, since how these clauses actually play out depends heavily on your specific lease language and state law. But knowing whether your lease has a reasonableness standard, a recapture right, or neither is the kind of detail that's easy to lose track of once you're managing more than a handful of leases. RenewSavvy surfaces that clause directly when you upload a lease, instead of leaving you to reread the whole document every time a tenant asks.