Short term Business Let Disputes

[Billy Bremner]

Not to sure what to do here, I was in a managed office arrangment written on a basic 6 month tenancy agreement that made no reference at all to renewal just an agreement that I occupied the space for 6 month, I was in for 5 years but the landlord never returned paperwork and after 2 6 month agreements never renewed the contract ( despite me requesting paperwork, I was worried that the price might go up ).

Anyway 5 years down the line, my business hits trouble, i owe arrears of about £6K on the offices and have not paid for a year and now vacated. The landlord is asking me to write to him and stating I owe the money. The last agreement we had was written in 2002 and expired in August 2002, there are no clauses saying if I remain in the property I will continue to to held to the terms of the original agreement. I have the tax man on my back and from the remains of the busines should be able to satisfy him. Does the landlord have anything he can do?

[tinman0]

i could be wrong, but you could offer £3k.

small claims has a limit of £5k, otherwise it goes to the next court up (can't remember the name) which then requires solictors, which means more money to try and sue you. if the business is limited then although you may get a judgement against you there is no firm guarantee that they'll get the money.

so, you offer a lower amount that saves you and them going to court to get money that they may not be able to get.

whether you owe the money in the first place is debatable, but its probably likely that you do considering that you had history of paying rent. its all very well to say that the agreement in 2002 doesn't count for anything if you continued to pay rent after that date as it would show a degree of history. if the 2002 agreement is not valid why did you continue to pay for it?

also, i don't think there needs to be an agreement in place anyway. if the agreement really has lapsed, but you are still in the premises then the contract becomes implied. implied contracts still have valid place in law and still protect your rights and the landlords right despite not being written down.

i could be very wrong (we had something similar several years ago), however, i'm sure a proper legal PH will correct me.

[billsnemesis]

Technical answer: occupation since the last agreement expired depends on what was written into it. If there is any provision at all it tends to be eg "six months and then month by month" or for the same period as the original tenancy.

If there was nothing in the original agreement then worst case scenario is that you are working on the basis of consecutive six month periods.

The period is crucial because you are liable for rent up to the later of (1) date the tenancy ends and (2) date of departure

Unless you have a specific provision you can't terminate a tenancy early so if you are on repeats of six months then you have to pay to the end of any six month period.

Non-technical answer: if the landlord is asking you to confirm in writing that you owe the money he must realise he has a problem at least as big as yours. Without paperwork it is going to be hard for him to prove you owe him anything and he wouldn't be asking for this if he weren't worried. Work out the rent on a daily basis from the date you last paid to the date you left and offer him 50% on a full and final settlement basis. In his situation I would take that and write off the rest.