D
DBA: Abbreviation for ‘doing business as’. Represents a tenant’s trade name, as opposed to the legal name of the tenant’s business.
Default: The non-performance of a lease obligation by the landlord or tenant. An act of default may be either monetary (i.e., failure to pay rent when due) or non-monetary (i.e., failure to provide a certificate of insurance). In certain instances, the lease may allow the non-defaulting party to cure the default of the defaulting party, and either billing the defaulting party for costs incurred therein or allowing the non-defaulting party to offset costs incurred to cure against other amounts due pursuant to the lease. Defendant: The person being sued.
Distraint: Distraint is the name for the procedure when the landlord takes the tenant’s furniture or other belongings and holds them as payment for rent the landlord claims the tenant owes. This procedure has been held unconstitutional and no landlord should do it. The only procedure to collect back rent is to obtain a judgment and execute on it.