Do I REALLY need a lawyer to review my commercial lease?

Yes, having a lawyer review your commercial lease is highly recommended. They bring expertise that ensures legal compliance, mitigates risks, aids in negotiation, potentially saves costs, and provides peace of mind.

Here are some of the advantages:

• Time: In many cases, business owners are tied up trying to manage their new or existing business, in that they do not have enough time to look over every.single.word to ensure that the lease is not skew in the Landlord’s favour.

• Understanding Terms: A commercial lease agreement can be long and include many words that may be new or unfamiliar to a business owner. It is beneficial to have a lawyer review the lease agreement and explain particular clauses that may not be completely understandable to the lay eye.

• Finding Red Flags: Commercial leases can be 3, 5, or 10 years long, which can seem like an eternity if you are stuck in an unfavourable lease. A lawyer can identify those terms and clauses that may be arbitrary or unreasonable and advise for them to be eliminated.

• Risk mitigation: By thoroughly reviewing your lease contract, Beacon Law can identify and mitigate risks associated with the lease terms. This could include provisions related to liability, insurance requirements, maintenance responsibilities, or dispute resolution procedures.

• Cost-savings: While hiring a legal firm may seem like an added expense, it can save you money in the long run. A lawyer has the ability to maximize your return on investment by saving you money over the years. A lawyer’s review could cost less than one month’s rent which is worth the possible issues arising in the future.

• Showing seriousness: The act of having a lawyer review a lease shows the landlord that you are a serious tenant and you intend to understand and comply with your lease.

Beacon Law is specialised in commercial and business law and can assist with review of a commercial lease. Having a lawyer review your commercial lease is a wise investment for any business owner. Contact Beacon Law for more information.

Why choose Beacon Law Centre as your company’s registered and records office

As a business owner, your time and expertise are valuable assets that are best utilized in areas where you can generate the most value. However, the administrative burden of maintaining corporate records and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements can be overwhelming and detract from your core focus. That’s where Beacon Law comes in. Here’s why entrusting Beacon Law with your company’s Registered and Records Office responsibilities can benefit you:

• Streamline Your Business: Why choose Beacon Law to act as your company’s Registered and Records (R&R) office:

• Inspection readiness: Your corporate records must be available for inspection for at least two hours every business day to the public. If your company’s R&R office is your home, anyone wishing to view your shareholder list would have the right to enter your home.

• Personal Privacy: if your house is the R&R office, your home address is disclosed to the public on a company search.

• Expertise on Record Inspection: Beacon Law has the expertise on restricting and monitoring record access to third parties. Our team ensures that the appropriate information remains confidential and secure.

• Automated Filing of Annual Reports: Eliminate compliance worries by having Beacon Law file your annual reports. Save time and reduce administration burdens while staying compliant.

• Notification of Court Notices: Beacon Law provides a reliable address for receiving important legal correspondence.

• Hub for Notices: The R&R office is a place for directors to send their notices of resignation.

• Secured and Safe Record Keeping: Keeping your records at Beacon Law reduces the risk of accidentally losing or destroying your records.

• Ongoing Record organization: Benefit from Beacon Law’s commitment to keeping your records organized. Well-maintained records will enhance the attractiveness of your company to a potential buyer.

• Document Date Stamping: We date-stamp all notices which are delivered to the R&R office. This becomes important for limitation dates and limiting liabilities.

• Address Compliance: If you operate a BC corporation, the R&R office must be located in British Columbia. This may be important if you do not normally reside in BC.

Federal Data Breach Reporting Rules

Have you ever lost a mobile phone? had a laptop stolen? misplaced a USB drive?

If so, under (Canadian) Federal rules that took effect in 2018, you may be required to report these kinds of incidents to the Federal Privacy Commissioner in Ottawa.

Reporting is mandatory if the data breach “creates a real risk of significant harm to an individual”. The degree of risk depends on several factors, such as:

• the potential for physical or financial harm, humiliation, or identity theft,

• the sensitivity of the lost information, and

• the possibility that it is being or will be misused.

These rules currently apply only to businesses that are Federally regulated, or organizations that share or move personal information across borders. In other words, not to BC businesses who only collect and use personal information in BC.

BC businesses must comply with BC’s Personal Information Protection Act. This BC legislation does not currently require mandatory reporting, similar to the Federal rules. However, complying with the Federal rules is still considered best practice in the privacy realm, and it may well become the law in BC in the future. Contact Beacon Law for more information.

Employment Contracts – Are They Worth It?

Being an employer sure comes with many challenges. During the period of employment the challenges include following employment standards, workers compensation, and human rights legislation. When employment is ending those regulations can also apply as well as the common-law rules for dismissing employees.

Whenever an employee is dismissed, there is a risk that the employee will bring a court action against the employer. As many court decisions show, employers can end up paying substantial amounts in monetary damages. Unless the employee was dismissed for just cause – which is often difficult for the employer to prove – damages can be awarded for wrongful dismissal, as well as for mental distress caused by the manner of dismissal, and breach of human rights standards. In rare cases, where the court strongly disapproves of the employer’s conduct, punitive damages can be added to the employee’s award.

Under the common-law, damages for wrongful dismissal are calculated based on the employer’s duty to give ‘reasonable notice’ to the employee of the dismissal. Reasonable notice can be “working notice” where the employee continues to work until the dismissal date, but employers often prefer to pay the employee’s wages for the notice period or “pay in lieu of notice.” If the employee sues the employer claiming wrongful dismissal, the court will decide whether the notice period (or payment in lieu) was long enough to be reasonable notice. The court will consider many factors, including the employee’s age, level of responsibility, length of employment, any promises made to the employee by the employer, as well as the state of the job market at the time. For these reasons, it is not easy to predict what the common-law reasonable notice period is for a particular employee at a particular time.

What About Employment Contracts?

Having a written employment contract can reduce the employer’s risk when dismissing the employee without just cause. If it is effective, the reasonable notice period will be limited to an amount that is at least equal to the statutory minimum notice period, as required by the Employment Standards Act. (The statutory minimum notice period also applies when there is no written employment contract). This benefits the employer because the alternative, the common-law reasonable notice period, is generally longer than the statutory minimum notice period.

However, even a well-written employment contract will not always be enforced by the court. To be enforceable, a written employment contract must be clear in its terms, and must also demonstrate that both parties intended those terms to be binding. Ideally the contract is made at the hiring stage; an employer who wants to bring in a new written employment contract with existing employees should use extra caution. Also, the common-law considers the employment relationship to include special protection for employees, including adding implied terms to written employment contracts. Other protections are found in provincial laws such as the Human Rights Code and Employment Standards Act.

Given the challenges and complexity of the law in this area, an employer who has or wants to create a written employment contract can really benefit from legal advice.

For more information on this or any other employment-related issue, please contact us.

Marijuana and the Workplace

The use of marijuana for medical and recreational purposes is legal in Canada. If you are an employer who is concerned about how to approach marijuana use by employees, here are some relevant suggestions and information:

• Employers have a duty to accommodate employees with disabilities, up to the point of undue hardship to the employer. This may include an employee’s use of medical marijuana as treatment for a disabling condition, or an employee’s substance addiction (this applies to substances other than marijuana too).

• Zero tolerance policies may not be enforceable. A zero-tolerance policy could be discriminatory against an employee who uses marijuana for medical reasons related to a disability. However, a zero-tolerance policy may stand where sobriety is a bona fide occupational requirement, such as in safety-sensitive workplaces.

• Have a clear drug policy that treats medical marijuana like other prescriptions (which can also cause impairment). The policy can also define what it means to be “impaired.” Some forms (or doses) of marijuana use may be consistent with an employee being able to fulfil their job duties.

• Employer drug testing policies need to be kept up to date. A clear method of determining impairment is not yet available, but testing technology is advancing and the law in this area is developing. All drug-related policies should be reviewed regularly.

In one case, the employer’s drug and alcohol policy required all employees to disclose any dependency or addiction issues. Workers who did disclose would be offered treatment, but workers who did not disclose would be fired if they were involved in an accident and tested positive for drugs or alcohol. The worker was fired after he was involved in an accident with a front end loader and then tested positive for cocaine use. In a human rights claim, the employee argued he was fired due to his drug addiction, which would be discriminatory. The court upheld the firing, because the employee had not disclosed his drug use to the employer as the policy required. The court agreed with the employer that the employee was fired for violation of the policy, which was not discriminatory because he was capable of complying with the policy. This is an example of how having appropriate employee policies for drug use can help an employer.

Employee use of drugs such as marijuana is not the only area of employment law that is changing, so employee policies require regular review and updating. Contact Beacon Law Centre to discuss your current employee policies, or to create a new employee policy manual.

Is Your Business Ready for Sale?

From helping hundreds of clients sell and buy their businesses, we have seen first-hand the difference it makes when a business is ready for sale (or not!).

The seller of a well-prepared business can benefit from fewer delays, a quicker and smoother process, lower legal and accounting costs, and sometimes a higher price.

If you want your business to be prepared for a sale, here are 9 steps you can take now:

1. Bring the financial records up to date.

2. Separate personal assets and expenses from the business.

3. Ensure the corporate records are up to date.

4. Update your operations manual (or, if you don’t have one, create one).

5. Document and organize all licenses, permits and significant contracts.

6. Put agreements with key employees and independent contractors into writing.

7. Resolve outstanding business disputes (with customers, suppliers, ex-employees, etc.).

8. Prepare an up-to-date list of the business assets and inventory.

9. List any consents required for a sale (from landlord, franchisor, lender, etc.).

Beacon Law Centre offers a comprehensive Business Legal Checkup to identify outstanding legal issues, and our Business Sale Navigator® program is designed to assist business owners through the sale process.

If selling your business is on your radar, give us a call.