Section 3 The Parties

• Library: Real Estate Leasing and Landlord-Tenant Actions and Remedies 2011

Considerable care should be taken to provide the correct names and addresses of the landlord and the tenant. The parties may be individuals, trusts, or any one of many different types of statutory entities, such as partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies, or business trusts. The website for the Missouri Secretary of State contains free searchable information as to registered business entities, e.g., the identities of the officers and whether the entities are in good standing. The Secretary of State’s website to search for business entities is:

^{www.sos.mo.gov/BusinessEntity/soskb/csearch.asp}

For LLCs (limited liability companies), the landlord may need to obtain the identities of the members or managers directly from the companies because that information is not a matter of public record. In connection with any lease in which the landlord relies on the reputation or creditworthiness of a particular company, the landlord should ascertain whether that company is the actual tenant or whether a subsidiary (possibly with little net worth) is to be the tenant. Some companies may form single-purpose or limited-purpose limited liability entities to insulate the parent company from liabilities associated with the lease. The creditworthiness of the tenant can be an important consideration for any...