Maybe you’ve been approached by a site acquisition agent, or a cellphone carrier about leasing your land for a tower to be built and you don’t know how to go about the whole process. In this case, you’ll need help from someone who knows how such agreements are made. Having an experienced professional tower lease consultant negotiate for you can make a big difference in the outcome. In this article, we’ve provided some advise on how to handle some of the issues you may encounter in a cell tower land lease agreement. Here we go!
What to Expect in a Cell Tower Lease Agreement
Cellphone tower land lease agreements are unusual. For starters, these agreements are not similar to standard residential or commercial property lease agreements.
In negotiations for this type of lease agreement, the party with access to the most detailed data almost always has the advantage. In most cases, this party is the cellphone carrier or tower company who initiated the lease. Before they even approach you, they will have done their research and found out if there are other properties nearby that will serve the same purpose. They also know how much carriers would likely pay, and how much property owners would typically accept or reject for leasing land in that market.
If other viable properties are available nearby, tower companies or carriers will often play one property owner against another in order to negotiate the lowest lease rate. And if your land is the only viable one, they may pretend to be negotiating with another owner when in fact the only one they are doing so with is you.
How Much Land Should you Lease?
The size of land required to build a cell tower varies. In some cases, the cellphone carrier of tower company might need more, and in others less land. You should, therefore, ask them how much land they require and provide the exact size, but not more. This is why you need a consultant in your team to protect your rights and make sure the wireless carrier does not take advantage of you.
Excessive Duration of the Cell Tower Lease Agreement
You should also think very carefully about the cell tower land lease agreement’s duration. Even though a twenty years promise of rent might sound like a good thing, a couple of things can happen putting you at a disadvantaged position. In nearly all tower land lease agreements, there is a clause that provides for early termination. If you’ve leased the land for let’s say twenty years, you’ll be stuck in this contract for that duration with a tower company or carrier that has the option of exercising this clause at any time without really having to provide you with a notice.
