Nothing in this article affects or impairs the rights and obligations of the parties to a lease to the extent that the lease provides for such rights and obligations in the event of the acquisition of all or a portion of the property for public use.
§ 1265.160.Rights and Obligations of Parties to Lease Not Affected
Title 7. Eminent Domain Law · Chapter 10. Divided Interests · Article 2. Leases · Enacted 1975 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 29, 2026
In one sentenceSection 1265.160 preserves the contractual rights and obligations lease parties have agreed on for the event of a public-use acquisition, leaving those private lease terms intact alongside this article's own termination and compensation rules.
Full Text of § 1265.160
Plain-English Summary
Many commercial leases already say what happens if the government condemns the property -- who gets what share of an award, whether the lease ends, and so on. This section keeps those private agreements in force: nothing in the article affects or impairs the rights and obligations the lease parties agreed to, to the extent the lease itself provides for those rights and obligations in the event of an acquisition of all or part of the property for public use.
This section works alongside §§ 1265.110 through 1265.150 rather than displacing them -- where the lease is silent, the article's default termination and compensation rules apply; where the lease speaks directly to condemnation, the parties' own bargain controls.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this article override a lease clause that already addresses condemnation?
No -- where the lease speaks to what happens on acquisition, that agreement controls.
What governs if the lease says nothing about condemnation?
The article's own default rules in §§ 1265.110 through 1265.150.
Amendment History
Added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 1275.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 29, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: lease condemnation clause enforceability californiaprivate lease terms eminent domain california