Problem with renewel of short term commercial lease!

[Divina]

Hello,

My landlord wrote me beginning of August (one month before new lease should have started) that the rent will go up. After several e-mails we came to an agreement just end of last week (7th of December , 4month later as it took always very long for him to answer my e-mails and he never gave me a deadline) for a two year's contract (second year slightly increased). I always continued to pay the rent (same old amount)as it is clear for me that the new lease will start not before I have signed the contract, which means on the first of January 2013. But he stated now in the new contract that the lease started from Sept 2012 and he is very persistent. Is he allowed to do this?? Can he now charge me the difference of the old and new rent from September 2012???

Thank you very much for your advise and help.

With kind regards,
Divina

[MrJohnnyB]

The lease should start at a mutually agreed time. He cannot force this to be backdated. You would have probably had security of tenure and be entitled to a new lease at a market rent on terms broadly in line with your previous lease. If you cannot agree terms then you can serve a S26 notice requiring a new lease and then apply to the court if required.

[Divina]

Hi Mr.JohnnyB,
Many thanks for your response and help. What exactly is a S26 notice?

[MrJohnnyB]

It is a notice you can serve on the landlord (Section 26 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954) which will bring the old lease to an end and propose terms for a new lease. The landlord will have a period within which they have to respond. Failure to do so will prevent them being able to oppose the grant.

[rentreviewspecialist]

"You would have probably had security of tenure and be entitled to a new lease at a market rent on terms broadly in line with your previous lease. If you cannot agree terms then you can serve a S26 notice requiring a new lease and then apply to the court if required."

With respect, I think that's far too simplistic, if not slightly misleading. I know what you mean but I suspect the op doesn't!

Re the op, any agreement to renew where no notices have been served (assuming notices would be required) is a matter of mutual agreement. The landlord is quite entitled to be persistent but you don't have to agree. Generally, unless otherwise agreed, where negotiations concern expiry and renewal one would expect both the rent and term commencement dates to be back-dated to the expiry of the old lease, but as I say, it's a matter for agreement.

If you involve Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 then there is no turning back. The (tenant) s26 notice would end the existing tenancy but you'd only have security of tenure if you apply to court before the end date in the notice (subject to any agreement to extend that date). There is no automatic security of tenure as such.

The landlord could serve s25 notice also ending the tenancy but even if he would not oppose grant of a new tenancy, the tenant would still have to apply to court before the end date (unless otherwise agreed)to protect renewal rights.


Expiry/renewal formal procedure is expensive as regards costs, so any way to avoid LTA54 procedures is to be welcomed, but you might have to concede points that might otherwise not be necessary. The approach is to weigh up the likely costs and risks against the commercial expediency.