By Liad Hadar – Director
This article first appeared in Asset Magazine’s May 2026 edition

We tend to spend a lot of time talking about macro risks in property.

We tend to talk about interest rates, tenant quality, location, yield and development costs. We analyse numbers, trends and market cycles.

Given that these are the factors that shape investment decisions, I understand the importance that is placed on them.

From my observations over numerous years representing landlords and property managers, the most dangerous risk is a micro risk that rarely gets priced in. It’s not the details of a deal, not the tenant, not the market.

It’s time.

Delay is the silent destroyer of value in property.

It doesn’t hit all at once as it accumulates quietly in weeks being lost and in decisions deferred. From experience, by the time that it becomes visible, the cost is already embedded in the asset.

Although I explain in this article that delays are inevitable and frustrating, I also advise on where I think delays can be avoided and shortened, such that time is saved and numerous positives flow as a result of this.

When You’re Right but Still Losing (Time)

One of the most frustrating realities for landlords is that you can be completely right – legally, factually, contractually and still find yourself losing.

I see this most clearly in commercial eviction matters.

The lease is clear and the tenant has breached and notices have been sent. The lease has been validly cancelled.

From a legal perspective, the matter is straightforward but what follows is generally rarely quick.

Instead, the process unfolds slowly – applications are opposed, arguments are raised, procedural steps are taken. As discussed in previous articles, after an eviction order or a monetary judgment is granted, the matter can move into another phase entirely – appeals.

From a legal standpoint, the landlord remains correct. From a commercial standpoint, the clock is ticking and that ticking clock is expensive in every sense of the word.

Every additional month means lost rental, uncertainty and missed opportunities to re-let or reposition the asset, as well as compounding legal fees.

Over time, what started as an obvious legal win, remains a win but is dragged on for an unnecessarily protracted period of time.

Wins Aren’t Always Wins

Given that the right to oppose matters is a necessary part of any fair legal system, such right exists to protect genuine tenants from unscrupulous landlords and to ensure that justice is properly administered.

But in practice, particularly in commercial matters, opposition is not always in the spirit of fairness or justice.

It is not uncommon for opposition to be filed simply to buy time. Time to remain in unlawful occupation, to delay enforcement and simply to postpone the inevitable.

All this done whilst the landlord carries the cost and this is where the real shift in thinking needs to happen. My theory is that if time can be used as a tactic by one party, it must be treated as a strategy by the other.

Being on the right side of the law is not enough. You have to be procedurally faster – both internally (pertaining your own processes) and externally (with your legal partners).

Where Delay Really Begins

Most delays don’t start in court but actually much earlier. They start in decisions that were postponed instead of made.

One weeks’ grace to a tenant who has failed to pay rent becomes two weeks, a month or even longer in some circumstances.

When decisions to take action are finally made, although legal action commences and is generally successful, the lost time factor creeps in. What could have been resolved few weeks earlier is delayed by the exact additional time that it took to take action.

In property, time isn’t abstract.

It’s funding costs, holding costs and shifting market conditions. In addition, it’s the cost of lost opportunities too.

My other theory is based on the butterfly effect – a small decision to not take any action now, can result in a compounded, substantial, adverse result in the future. Conversely, a small decision to act now, rather than waiting, can substantially reduce the compounded lost time and can save you weeks or months as a result.

The Real Cost of Waiting

The cost of delay rarely shows up as a single line item or one bad debt at any particular point in time.

It’s not something you can invoice for or immediately calculate or quantify.

Instead, as has been the theme of my message in this article, it appears gradually, silently and eventually substantially.

A vacancy that lasts longer than it should or a dispute that drags on beyond reason starts to affect financial reports, schedules and the like.

And what’s most dangerous about them is that they often feel normal. They become accepted as “just how things work” – but they don’t have to be.

Why Timing Is a Legal Strategy

At Hadar Incorporated, we’ve come to see timing not as something that happens to a matter, but as something that must be actively managed.

That mindset changes everything.

It means thinking ahead, not just about how to win a case, but how long it will take to resolve the entire matter and obtain the desired result. In essence, it means calculating backward from the desired end result and working out how to get there in the shortest period of time with all possible scenarios considered in such calculation.

It means anticipating opposition, appeals, procedural tactics and pain points before they arise. Taking certain action to circumvent any unnecessary time delays that are part of the “just how things work” definition.

When delays do surface, it means responding decisively by advancing matters, closing those gaps and using the tools available in law to keep things moving.

Momentum becomes value.

Property is a long-term investment but success within that long-term horizon depends on how efficiently you move through each phase.

The landlords and property managers who perform best are not just those who make the right decisions but those who make them quickly, clearly and strategically. Value in property is not only created by what you own but how effectively and how quickly you can act.

In a market where margins are tight and competition is rife, that time difference matters more than ever. Because in property law, as in property itself, time is money and it’s one of the factors that you can actually assert some control over – starting with taking action now.