Personal Guarantee Review: What You're Really Signing
When you sign a personal guarantee in a commercial lease, you're agreeing that if your business can't pay the rent, you personally will — using your personal savings, home equity, and other assets. A broad personal guarantee on a 5–10 year commercial lease creates enormous personal financial risk. SaferLease reviews personal guarantee provisions in commercial leases to tell you exactly what you're on the hook for, and what terms you should negotiate to limit your exposure.
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Why Use SaferLease?
Liability Scope Analysis
We analyze exactly what the personal guarantee covers — base rent only, all lease obligations, attorney's fees, holdover rent, and more — and quantify your total potential personal liability.
Guarantee Duration Review
We determine whether the guarantee runs for the full lease term, a specified number of months, or ends on specific conditions (like a "good guy" provision). Duration significantly affects risk.
Burn-Down Provision Identification
Some guarantees include "burn-down" provisions that reduce guaranteed liability as lease obligations are fulfilled over time. We identify and explain these favorable provisions.
Good Guy Guarantee Analysis
A "good guy guarantee" terminates personal liability when you vacate and provide required notice — dramatically limiting downside. We identify whether your lease includes one.
Co-Guarantor Provisions
When multiple business owners sign a lease, personal guarantee obligations may be joint and several (each owner liable for all) or several (each liable only for their share). We analyze the structure.
Financial Threshold Triggers
Some guarantees activate only upon business insolvency or specific financial thresholds. We identify any conditions that limit when the guarantee can be enforced.
What Your AI Lease Review Looks Like
Here's a preview of the kind of analysis SaferLease provides for this type of lease.
Risk Score
Flagged Issues
A personal guarantee extending for the full remaining lease term upon business failure — creating personal liability for years of rent for a failed business.
Guarantees that cover all lease obligations — not just rent — including CAM charges, operating expenses, build-out costs, legal fees, and holdover rent.
When multiple business owners each sign joint and several personal guarantees, each individual can be held liable for the full amount — not just their proportionate share.
Personal guarantees that continue in effect even after you've sold the business or assigned the lease — maintaining personal liability for a business you no longer own.
Guarantees that allow enforcement without advance notice to the guarantor — preventing you from curing any default before personal liability is triggered.
Landlords sometimes require spousal signatures on personal guarantees to reach marital assets — creating liability for a non-business-owner spouse.
Disclaimer: SaferLease provides AI-powered informational analysis and is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
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SaferLease provides AI-powered informational analysis and is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.