USA - ALABAMA Law and Practice Contributed by: Adam J. Sigman, Crystal H. Walls, Nathan Stotser and Katie Sinclair, Dentons
Commercial Lease For a commercial lease, the landlord must give the tenant ten days’ notice of default (or more, if required under the lease); if the default is not cured, the landlord may file an unlawful detainer action, notice of which must be posted at the leased premises. The tenant then has 14 days from the posting of notice to file an answer. Assuming the tenant does not answer, the land - lord may file for a writ of execution with the district court for the county where the leased premises are located, which will be issued to the county sheriff, and it may take several weeks to actually serve and evict the tenant. In total, the process can take several months or longer, based on the case’s specific circum - stances; see Section 6-6-310 to -353. 6.22 Termination by a Third Party Pursuant to its terms, a lease may be terminated by a third party in the case of condemnation or foreclosure on the part of a lender that pre-dated the lease. In the event that the leased premises are condemned, “the lessee is entitled to share in the total award only in proportion to [its] inter - est” (State Highway Department v Lawford, 611 So 2d 285, 288 (Alabama 1992)); and, if the fee owner is satisfied with the award for its interest in the property, but the leasehold owner is not, the circuit court can order a separate trial for the leaseholder on appeal (State v SouthTrust Bank of Baldwin City, 634 So 2d 561, 563-564 (Alabama Civil Appeal 1994)). Payment is based on the fair market value of the leasehold interest. 6.23 Remedies/Damages for Breach An Alabama landlord may only accelerate rent in a commercial lease if the lease expressly per - mits this. A landlord may only pursue self-help to retake possession of the premises after a default if the lease permits re-entry on default. Alabama
county where the leased property is situated. See Section 35-4-6. Transfer taxes are due when the lease (or a memorandum of lease) is recorded in the public records (Section 40-22-1(a)). Transfer taxes are USD1 multiplied by the tax consideration. The tax consideration is calculated as follows: term of lease (in months) multiplied by monthly rent multiplied by percentage from a lease per - centage chart kept by the probate court of the county where the property is located (which is based on the term of the lease), divided by 1,000. See Section 40-22-1(c). To obtain the proper lease percentage table, attorneys should contact the probate court of the county where the property is located. The tax consideration is rounded up to the nearest USD500 (Section 40-22-1(c)). 6.21 Forced Eviction Residential Lease For a residential lease, the landlord must give the tenant seven business days’ notice of default; if the default is not cured, the landlord may file an unlawful detainer action, notice of which must be posted at the leased premises. The tenant then has seven days from the posting of notice to file an answer. Assuming the tenant does not answer, the landlord may file for a writ of execu - tion with the district court for the county where the leased premises are located, which will be issued to the county sheriff, and it may take sev - eral weeks to actually serve and evict the tenant. In total, the process can take several months or longer, based on the case’s specific circum - stances; see Section 35-9A-461.
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