More landlord strife...

[cliffe_mafia]

Hello all, I require some advice regarding a landlord.

A business I am involved in is looking to expand due to demand and we have identified a building available for rent.

The building needs some work carrying out , roughly - 10k for new roof which the landlord will pay, and another 10k to renovate the interior.
The rental figure and costs above were agreed, so we applied for planning permission to change the use of the building, and shelled out for an architect to get through the planning and building regs.
We phoned the landlord last week to keep him up to speed and he mentions that there is someone else 'interested' in the building.
So where do we stand? There has been a lot of time and effort gone into this plus about £700 for the council charges and architect.
We had reached an agreement on the rental but all we have written down are some quotes that he gave us for the roof (because we thought (correctly) that we could save him some money!).
Is there such a thing as a pre rental agreement that we should have got him to sign??
Personally, I think that there is no other party interested and he will just try to bump the rent up.:censored:

So , PH Massive , has anyone else had a similar experience? Thanks in advance...

CM

[nightmare]

Im sorry to say this but I tihnkyou've kinda stuffed yourself.

Effectively what you're saying is that you have spent time and money looking at improving property belonging to someone else - and you have NO agreement that this work will ultimately benefit you. In fact, it will clearly benefit the landlord.

I think what you needed to do is tell the landlord that if he wants to rent his property HE has to upgrade it....simple as that.

I agree that it's likely he's being a little f**ker, but i dont tink you have anything to fall back on if you dont have anything in writing.

I relaly hope Im wrong on this and someone will tell me so.

good luck dude
Night

[mk1fan]

Basically when purchasing/renting property in England and Wales (both commercial and residential) the purchaser has no entitlement until contracts are signed and exchanged. Any resources spent by the purchaser up to this point are all at their own risk.

If this deal falls through you could still utilise the Architect's designs as a template for the fit out of the property you end up with. You will also have more of an understanding whether the Local Authority are willing to grant change of use consent on a similar property.

It is not uncommon for a contract to be written and agreed with the condition that the Landlord seeks and obtains change of use consent.

I would point out that any alterations you make leave you liable for a dilapidations claim at the end of the lease term. Make sure you understand - i.e get the solicitor to FORMALLY explain to you - what the repairing and maintenance obligations are under any lease you enter into.

[billsnemesis]

Nightmare has just about summed it up - unless you have something in writing there is nothing much you can do.

Of course, it could be a bluff but you don't have much leverage.

[mutt k]

Where is this unit and how big is it? The industrial property market is flagging at the moment, so people fighting over units is a pretty rare occurence at the moment imho.

[cliffe_mafia]

Thanks for the replies so far gents...

So, its as I feared and our money is at risk. It does seem strange that the leaser has to shell out in advance like we have done.

mk1fan said:

It is not uncommon for a contract to be written and agreed with the condition that the Landlord seeks and obtains change of use consent.

I think we'll have to consider this option next time. Do you know if this is the same for buying a building too? It seems to make life much more difficult when it takes 3 months to run everything passed the council.

mutt k said:

Where is this unit and how big is it? The industrial property market is flagging at the moment, so people fighting over units is a pretty rare occurence at the moment imho.

Its only about 300 sq m in the Manchester area (sorry don't want to be more specific - the landlord might drive a TVR ). Its a backstreet location which means the rental figure was reasonable factoring in the cost of the renovation.

We are having further talks with the bloke tomorrow so hopefully all will not be lost. I haven't dealt with him but my partner had said before this that he was a nice bloke, and he had been really helpfull.