Here’s a link to a 1997 paper on billboard leases which was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association. The paper is 17 years old but gives a lot of good advice about leases.
- Write a lease not a license because leases are harder to terminate.
- Get the lease notarized and attach a memorandum of assignment to the lease which is signs and notarized. Many states require leases over a year to be notarized in order to be valid. Also, you want to record the memorandum of assignment so that any future property owners know that you have an agreement governing the property.
- Have the lease make as clear as possible where the sign is on the property. Drawings help.
- Get the right to assign the lease without consent of the landlord. Otherwise any sale of the sign will delayed by haggling over assignment.
- Make sure the lease grants you access to the sign for maintenance and copy changes.
- Make sure your landlord covenants not to block the sign.
- Get the right to remove your billboard if the lease is terminated.
- Keep your lease payments to no more than 20-25% of the sign’s estimated revenue.
