Sec. 202. Operation Of Rule As To Failure Of Lease

As a practical proposition, the rule that commissions for the full term of a lease are earned when the lease is signed, regardless of any subsequent failure on the part of the tenant, may sometimes work a hardship on the landlord, as he may have paid or be compelled to pay the broker more for his commissions than he collects rent from the tenant, should the tenant fail to pay his rent under the lease. As a legal proposition, however, the landlord has his remedy against the tenant by suit to collect the rent as it becomes due, as long as the lease runs and the property fails to bring the rental agreed on in the lease. If the tenant is financially irresponsible and judgment against him would be uncollectible, the situation is still the same. The law gives the landlord a remedy by suit, but the law does not guarantee successful collection of any judgment obtained by the remedy. Moreover, the landlord having entered into the lease with the tenant, the former is deemed to have accepted the latter as satisfactory, and if the landlord has not satisfied himself of the financial standing of the proposed tenant before entering into the lease, he has himself to blame.12

Further, in some states, New York for one, if the landlord dispossesses the tenant for non-payment of rent, such dispossess puts an end to the lease unless the lease specifically provides to the contrary.13 And the provision in the lease to the contrary must be explicit. Having dispossessed the tenant and thus put an end to the lease, the landlord cannot recover any rent subsequently accruing, unless, as stated, the lease specifically so allows.

12 See Sec. 153-155 supra.

13 N. Y. Code of Civil Procedure, Sec. 2263.