By now you have likely heard the story that the mayoral candidate Angie Swiger had a member of her staff attempt to coerced a rental tenant on one of her properties to display ONLY her election sign. The tenant, LA Pizzeria, disclosed during an interview with WKRG News they were ending their lease with the Swiger group.

The business location was at 520 West Beach Blvd., in Gulf Shores. Records show that the property is owned by 520 WBB LLC., a Alabama business that was registered in 2017. WBB LLC is located at 415 Clubhouse Drive in Gulf Shores.

The owners of LA Pizzeria stated that they had a successful business at this location until the political sign chaos caused them to leave. They had made the unbiased decision to either put all candidate signs on the location or non at all. However, David Swiger had arrived to the property to post his wife's election signs and remove those of Mayor Craft. The Lambidonis, who own the pizzeria, chose to end their lease with the Swigers. It should also be noted that the Swigers both apologized to the pizzeria owners for the incident.

This raised the question: Does a property owner have the right to dictate which election signs are allowed to be displayed on a property they have leased or rented to a tenant?

In our review of Alabama Code, the Swigers could have a possibility of banning ALL political signs on commercial property they leased if they had written it into the actual Lease Agreement. But the tenants could use the first amendment and state they were invoking their right to free speech.

Generally, a renter cannot be forced to put up a political sign on their property, especially if the sign is displayed within the tenant's rented space (like their yard or window). Lease agreements may have restrictions on signs, but these restrictions must be reasonable and not infringe on the tenant's free speech rights.

Alabama landlord-tenant law, Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (AURLTA) does not address commercial leases. The rights of business leases in Alabama are governed by general contract law and specific landlord-tenant statutes, detail the rights and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants in commercial leases.