Tenant in financial problems- landlord seeks to forfeit

[steveanddee]

Hello

I am new on here and was after some advice please.

OK here is the situation, the business (hair salon) has had to close down due to a various number of reasons, the worst being that my partner got assaulted in the salon and our family getting harassment from the locals, now we are left with being in rent arrears to the tune of 5 months.

The salon is closed, and we have had to move out of the property above for safety reasons. We were about to move a tenant in last week, when he said that the landlord had told him that if we hadn't made contact by the end of this week the locks were getting changed, apparently the new tenant and landlord are "friends from school". We decided not to move him in as something didn't seem right, surely the landlord can't discuss our business with anyone, even an old "school friend".

The landlord's agent delivered a letter believing that we have abandoned the property, and that we have breached the lease by not being open and having the rent arrears.

We do not want to loose everything after all the time, money and effort gone into this, but we can only assume that the landlord will try for repossession which is what the agent said would happen if the arrears got to 6 months.

The dilemma we face now is that we have had an offer made on the properties, and don't think that the landlord would agree to assign a new lease. If he just wants us out and to get his money back it will take a long time, because it is only my partners name on the lease and she is now unable to work, whereas if he allowed us to sell the lease he could get all of the arrears back upon completion, we would even get our solicitor to put this in writing to him.

I know that from my point of view, if I was offered getting a £**** lump sum in a couple of months or very small amounts over a few years, I know which option I'd take.

Even though we have got into a real mess, would a landlord allow us to sell or could he just make it difficult and try to repossess? And also, are there any legal implications of what he said to his "school friend" is this some kind of breach of confidentiality?

If anyone is able to offer some advice it would be grately appreciated.

[Editor]

If you have decided to sell your business most leases will allow assignment - not to be unreasonably witheld or delayed by the landlord - check your lease.
Providing you come up with a reasonable purchaser then the landlord will not be able to object or delay your assignment - if he does he faces punitive damages.
However, to obtain your licence to asign you need to have complied with the terms of your lease. Clearly this is not the case and you are leaving yourself open to having your landlord refuse the assignment and forfeit the tenancy.
Your landlord appears to hold all the cards here so you need to communicate with him and hammer out the best deal you can.
It is unlikely that a court would throw you out providing you make up the arrears within a reasonable time.

[steveanddee]

Further to what we have said above, we have spoken with the landlords agent he has given us this option: Hand the keys back, use our deposit to pay off some of the arrears and write off the remainder, then basically shake hands and rip up the lease.

My questions to this are:

1. What do we need in writing to say the lease has been terminated?

2. Would something like this go against us and be kept on records anywhere?

[propman2]

your landlord quite clearly seems to have another tenant lined up possibly at an increased rent per annum hence keeness for you to hand unit back.

As editor said landlord can forfeit for arrears however this would take time and possibly court could give you relief from forfeiture.

therefore it seems to me that you should go back and say that you understand what rights you have and that if he wants possession quickly he has to co-operate with you.

I guess there is value in your business goodwill fixtures and fittings etc does this outweigh your rent arrears?

you really should be trading because it may be that the landlord takes it that you have abandoned and gain entry by peaceable re-entry. Keep open clauses are notoriously difficult for a landlord to enforce however your rent arrears puts you at risk of peaceable re-entry.

at the end of the day you have an obligation to pay the landlord his rent and understandably he may purely be concerned and allowing the arrears to build further and wants the quickest method to secure his unit.

However there may be a mutual way such that he gets his rent and you get a return on your business goodwill etc. Providing what course you take includes paying the landlord what is owed to him it is worth further effort by yourself.

As always worth seeing a solicitor