The clause usually forms part of a parent company guarantee that is intended to limit the applicability of the doctrines of impossibility or frustration of purpose.
Whether or not the phrase "hell or high water" is explicitly written, the general meaning of it has been included in a majority of equipment leasing contracts over the past few decades.
[7][8] Typical triple net leases require tenants to be responsible for paying rent, utilities, maintenance, HVAC expenses, roofing repairs, and even property taxes.
As with some other applicable transactions of hell or high water, this type of lease makes the tenant responsible for payments associated with unexpected events which some refer to as acts of god.
If a company agrees to take responsibility for all the risk by signing a hell or high water clause then they are required to take all actions possible to secure antitrust approval.
In the United States, this clause is given special protection under Article 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code when the agreement is classified as a finance lease.
[14] Some lawyers instead draw a distinction between past acts of God and COVID-19 in that the government forced many businesses to shut down, and speculate that courts would be hard-pressed to rule in favor of the lessor in this situation.
[15] [Party's] obligations to pay all amounts due are absolute and unconditional and shall not be subject to any abatement, reduction, set off, defense, counterclaim, interruption, deferment or recoupment for any reason whatsoever.