Some of the most fertile ground for insolvency litigation are relations with commercial landlords.  Not only are the amounts at issue significant, but more often than not, the law and the conditions for occupancy or surrender of commercial premises will have a defining impact on the distribution of the realization proceeds or on the viability of the restructured business.

In this paper, we try to determine how some of a commercial landlord’s rights are affected by a tenant’s insolvency.  Is the commercial landlord a second-class citizen under Quebec insolvency law?

Paper presented at the Forum québécois sur l’immobilier commercial (Quebec Commercial Real Estate Forum) held by the Canadian Institute (Montreal, February 19 - 20, 2007)