Catch the estoppel mismatch

1 · Learn the move · Fact-check list

When you refinance or sell what you built, the lender asks each tenant to certify its lease in an estoppel, and the signed certificates go into the loan file as fact. You are the landlord, so a mismatch is not someone else's due diligence finding. It is either an amendment your own file is missing, a promise someone on your team made in an email, or a tenant claim you are about to let the lender rely on. A fact-check list does the work: every item gets MATCH or DISCREPANCY with both documents quoted, and anything the tenant certifies that your lease does not show becomes UNSUPPORTED CLAIM, quoted from the estoppel with the lease's silence noted. Add your rent ledger as a third source, because 'rent paid through' is where estoppels and ledgers most often disagree. Two things stay out of the model's hands: deciding which document controls, and editing the tenant's certificate before it reaches the lender. Both go to counsel.

Check this returned estoppel against my lease file and my rent ledger. Each item: MATCH or DISCREPANCY with both sources quoted, or UNSUPPORTED CLAIM if my lease is silent. Never decide which document controls, and never suggest editing the tenant's certificate. End with what must be resolved before the estoppel goes to the lender. [estoppel] [lease and amendments] [ledger]