Nacoochee Corporation filed a dispossessory action against Suwanee Investment Partners, LLC, d/b/a Backdrafts “Suwanee”, alleging that Suwanee was a tenant-at-will. After a nonjury trial, the superior court entered judgment in favor of Suwanee, finding that a handwritten agreement between the parties was an enforceable lease and that Nacoochee was estopped from denying its validity. Nacoochee appeals, arguing primarily that the agreement violates the statute of frauds. We agree and accordingly reverse the trial court’s denial of the dispossessory action, but we remand for the court to consider whether the parties’ partial performance under the lease removes it from the statute of frauds. No testimony was admitted at trial, but the following facts appear from the pleadings. Nacoochee owns certain commercial property in Gwinnett County. On August 17, 2004, Suwanee’s owners met with Nacoochee representatives and expressed a desire to lease the property. The parties executed a handwritten, one-page document titled “Lease Deal,” which listed a payment schedule including an initial deposit and graduated payments over the next five years. The document was signed by a Nacoochee representative and by Suwanee’s future owners.1 Aside from the payment schedule, the only other terms contained in the “Lease Deal” were brief liquidated damages and indemnification provisions.2 Although the document was dated and indicated that Suwanee’s owners were paying the deposit and first month’s rent “today,” it did not state when the lease term was to begin, nor did it name or describe the property to be leased.
Nacoochee contends that its representatives told Suwanee’s owners at the August 17 meeting that “they would have to execute a lease agreement in the same form as that executed by the previous tenant, and that in addition to the base rent, they would be obligated to pay their pro rata share of the common area maintenance charges, real estate taxes, and insurance premiums.” Nacoochee later sent Suwanee a formal, detailed lease agreement that would have obligated Suwanee to pay these additional fees, but Suwanee refused to sign it, claiming that the “Lease Deal” embodied the parties’ entire agreement. According to the parties’ lawyers, Suwanee made lease payments according to the schedule set forth in the “Lease Deal” and Nacoochee accepted them.
