Most franchisors want to push as much responsibility as possible for the commercial lease to the franchisee. They do not want the landlord looking to them for security in the event that the franchisee fails in the business. It is always good for a prospective franchisee to understand exactly how much help they will be able to get from the franchisor on the leases. One clause that the franchisee should ALWAYS insist on is that the franchisee may sell the franchise to any other qualified franchisee of the system, and that the landlord automatically grants an assignment. And it is even better if the assignment is a full assignment, allowing the selling franchisee to have no contingent liability after the sale of the business.

There is a lot more to know about commercial leases and I cover the subject of commercial leases in some detail in "49 Insider Secrets" (www.49franchisesecrets.com).