Clear Reservation Language Necessary to Exclude Something from a Transfer

The Supreme Court of Ohio recently decided a dispute involving commercial real estate and held that, absent an express reservation, the right to receive rents from a lessee runs with the land and follows legal title.  See LRC Realty, Inc. v. B.E.B. Properties, 2020-Ohio-319.  The Supreme Court of Ohio’s decision in LRC overturned a lower court’s decision regarding a dispute over whether the buyer or seller was entitled to receive rental payments from the owner of cell tower located on the commercial real estate that had been transferred to the buyer.  The LRC Court summarized the general rule in Ohio that all real property rights transfer with title, unless there is a clearly stated reservation of rights to the contrary.  Thus, the Court concluded that the buyer was entitled to those rental payments, despite the seller’s receipt of some of them and the seller’s mistaken belief that it was entitled to receive them and keep them.