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I am a company and am leasing a yard from a landlord this past 2 year. i just renewed my lease Jan 2012 for 5 years Which we had to pay a deposite for as well.There is 5 other firms in same location and also leasing from same guy .Last week we got a call from a lawyer firm saying that the had terminated my landlords lease and that the give him 3months to get out ,which we knew nothing off and at the moment nobody can get through to our landlord he has vanished.They agency firm dealing with this now came to my office yesterday and said that the would give me an extra 4 weeks to get out as a good will gesture beause he says he knows we are innocent in this but id have to sign legal documents with them and also pay them £1000 rent for the month but then id have to get out after 4 weeks ..whats my rights on this
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Good day, I always strive to reply in the shortest possible time,I may be delayed answering other questions, attending a meeting or in courtHow much notice should you have under the contract?
sorry i dont get your answer
My contract can be renewed every 5 years and before renewal we most notify the land lord 30 days prior to expiration of the current agreement .Landlord reserves the right to refuse a renewal provided he gives renter 90 days notice..should illigal activity be discovered landlord reserves the right to terminate the Agreement and retain any deposit in full..But my landlord has not notifed me or any other renter in this yard ..The people who are chucking us out are my landlords landlord.the say he should not have been subletting and it is illigal ..we know nothing off this the man is/was renting this yard past 18 years
I have been asked to look at this for you. Can you please tell us what exactly is in your lease. When you took on the lease, did you check that the landlord had permission to grant you the lease? Did you take legal advice? Have you paid the rent up to date? Have you spoken to the superior landlord about the possibility of renting from him? It appears that you have because you mentioned £1000 per week rent. What rent were you paying to the landlord, who has gone? We do need fine details, please. Thank you
I didnt check out the lease and i didnt get legal advise on it either .When all these other guys were in the area for years and renting from the same guy i jumped at the chance .I was actualy waiting on my space to come up for 3 years.Anyway thats hearsay i know..I was paying £600 per month and im paid up to Aug 2012.The other guys(agency for the superior landlord) want us out as the say its in the process of been sold .They are offering me a 4 week grace to get out at a cost of £1000 for the 4 weks.The rent is not the issue here ,i just cant simply vacate the place in that time .,If we had got the 3 months notice which the say the give my landlord then we could have possibly worked something out ..We are not wanting to sit here for freebies or anything like that we just simply now would like a fair deal.Can they through us out monday if we dont sign there terms of 4 week contract..
I'm afraid the situation with commercial leases is not a straightforward as with residential leases. If this was a residential lease, then the landlord would not be able to throw you out. I assume that there is no issue over your landlord, not having consent to sublet. Assuming that is the case then you should have checked your landlord did have the consent and ability to sublet the property. In effect, you are now a squatter. You cannot we got out, of a residential property without a court order, but the situation with commercial properties is different. The landlord is likely to simply change the locks. You then have all your equipment in the building and can't get it out. You are then faced with making an application to court to get access. The situation you are in now is that the landlord is likely to turn up, without notice, and change the locks. This then put you on the back foot when you are faced with a whole load of legal bills, arguing whether or not he is entitled to do this or not. If I say to you "know he cannot do this." And he turns up over the weekend and changes the locks you are in an un-enviable position. The reason I say this is that it happened to a client of mine two weeks ago. The landlord simply came along on Saturday and changed the locks. My client was faced with an application to court, which would cost him money, which he didn't have. Under the circumstances (which I will not bore you with) the chances are that the landlord would have lost in court, but my client could not afford the risk. Do you want to run the risk? I assume that you have never paid rent to this landlord. If you had, the situation is somewhat different. As you then have a tenancy act will, however, you still would not be entitled to more than four weeks notice. You could go to court and make an application for an injunction to stop them changing the locks, but it is likely to cost you £2000 for the application with no guaranteed result. I'm afraid to say that in this situation you have a practicalities versus legalities situation.
Can I help further?
Thanks for getting back to me .What we have is yards,,(plots of land which we have fenced off, no buildings prob the same thing.Money now is not an issue myself and one of the other larger companys accupying within same location yard would have no issue with money ,we dont want to go this route as i say all we want is a fair deal to get out.So in a nut shell we dont have a leg to stand on do we???should we sign his 4 week deal ?or should we call his bluff and let him go the legal route which i thought would buy us at least 8 weeks anyway which would be better than his 4!!But if he can cut all the locks and through out our security man over the weekend (can he do this)then would we be the ones chasing the courts
It is your decision as to whether you pay him the £1000 or not. Of course, you have to pay rent for the time that you are there. If he cut your lock off, then that is criminal damage and it is a police matter. Some police forces will take it on board, others will say that it is a civil matter, because this is a dispute over a piece of land. I can tell you now that it is not a civil matter, the dispute is a civil matter, but the cutting of the lock is most certainly criminal damage.
If one of the landlords henchmen cut the lock off then the henchman commits the criminal damage and the landlord conspires to commit criminal damage.
Your situation is not strong because you do not have a valid lease, you did not check the your landlord had the right to grant the lease to you, you have never paid this landlord any rent, and it is a commercial property not a residential one. The fact that it is merely a yard and has no buildings on is immaterial.
At this stage, you will get further with a kind word than a gun, although it depends of the landlord is using a metaphorical gun. You can make an application to court, but the situation of your own landlords making is complicated and it would not be cheap.
As I said earlier, you have legalities and practicalities and the last thing you want (I am sure) are expensive court proceedings. I'm afraid that there is not a magic solution to this.
Experience: PGD Law. 20 years legal profession, 6 as partner in High Street practice