Legal fees regarding commercial lease

[DeanR32]

Afternoon PH

I'll try to keep it short, but my missus and her sister were looking to start a business together. All was going well with the landlord, and my missus and I were thinking of renting the house adjoining the shop to make work and family life easier for her.

We had a verbal agreement for the house with the landlords (elderly couple) and would look to sort the legal side of things with the shop before taking on the house. In the meantime, the lease was being drawn up, and we were asked if we were willing to contribute to the fees for the lease, which we paid half of gladly.

Then the landlords son got involved, and he raised the price of the house by £300pm, which was just too much for me and the missus to afford, considering her loss of wage from her current job, and a couple other things. It meant we were unable to commit to the shop after all. Gutted, but I'm sure another opportunity will arise.

The lease had been drawn up by this time, and now the landlords son wants to claim the rest of the legal fees from us.

Does anyone on here know if we're liable for this? Nothing had been signed up to date.

Cheers in advance

[williaa68]

I would say not. It isnt unusual to be liable for legal costs as a tenant but only as a tenant unless you sign an application form or similar making it clear you will be liable for costs in any event. In the absence of such an agreement, he is going to struggle.

[Centurion07]

So he wants you to abide by a verbal contract that was entered into on the basis of another verbal contract that he wants to ignore?

Tell him to do one.

IANAL but verbal contracts can be enforced. See my first sentence.

[KevinCamaroSS]

Alternatively go and look for another house to rent near the business.

[DeanR32]

Thanks for the replies

If I'm honest, I would have probably just paid the money for messing the people around and pulling out at the last minute, but this would all be going ahead if the price of the home use didn't rise by the amount it did. I'm a bit pee'd off how the relationship changed once the son got involved.

Anyhow, there were visits to both premises, negotiations via email with the landlords and estate agent, and we told the elderly couple we were interested in both the shop and the house. Our contribution to the fees were a goodwill gesture so an elderly couple didn't have to stump up the whole sum. When prices rose, it became too expensive to justify for us.

[Chrisgr31]

Raised the price of the house by £300 per month? How much was it originally? Thats a large increase! Of course potentially cost them a lot of money as no getting no rent for the house or shop!

[randlemarcus]

Tell them you will happily hold up your end of the bargain if they will. Otherwise feel free to point out that his breach came first, therefore there is no obligation on your part. Ho hum, they shouldn't have let the inheritance hound get involved.

[Centurion07]

randlemarcus said:

inheritance hound

[pork911]

OP other than your pockets (which is of course irrelevant) is the increased rent fair?

[DeanR32]

Centurion07 said:

randlemarcus said:

inheritance hound

This is exactly my thought. The landlords are well into their seventies! Really pissed me off.

The landlords said they were looking for £1000. We said that together with the shop, that may be too much for us and they told us not to worry about the price of the house and we'll come to an agreement that works for both of us. I took that as getting it a little cheaper, but the son looked up the postcode and then wanted an agent to push for £1300, but £1200 would do.

The house and shop have sat unoccupied for 2 years. You'd think 3 years tenancy on both properties would have been pretty tempting after being sat dormant for so long

[pork911]

Or he could have been looking out for his parents.

[DeanR32]

pork911 said:

Or he could have been looking out for his parents.

Probably. Regardless, we couldn't afford the revised rate, and had to back out of the shop because of the house. We don't live far from it, but my missus doesn't drive, and with our two kids, getting to the shop to prepare it to open for 7am, it just wouldn't work.

I'm gutted the deal broke down. The landlords were lovely all the way up till the son got the involved. We'd more than likely be in there paying rent as we speak.

[PurpleMoonlight]

You agreed to pay half of the cost of preparing the lease, which you have done. The landlord cannot claim anything more from you regardless of whether or not it is effected.

[Rangeroverover]

Write an old fashioned letter to the elderly couple thanking them for their time and apologising for not going through with it. Explain that the rather sudden price hike made it unworkable

Dear Mr & Mrs XXX
Re: Shop and House
Thank you so much for taking the time to show my wife and I both the house and shop, we were both really excited by the prospect of a new family home and a new business for my wife as it has always been her dream to work for herself. We have both spent many hours working through the financial element of this in order to make sure we can honour our commitments.

As I'm sure you are now aware we are unable to take up your offer as the rather sudden extra £300 per month overall cost is just too much for us at the moment; the original figure was at the top of our comfort level and we cannot stretch any further. If for any reason you do not find a tenant at the increased price please do contact us as we would still love to go ahead with this but as I said above we really can only proceed at the original price.

Please keep the 50% contribution we made to the drafting of the lease as I'm sure it will be of use to you when/if you find another tenant.

Once again many thanks and thank you for your time

Yours etc

[Centurion07]

pork911 said:

Or he could have been looking out for his parents.

Well he's certainly done that alright.

Two years empty and he's now ensured an even longer period of no income.

It's not like OP came along just as a tenant was moving out and bid them in the balls.

If the couple were happy to accept the "low" offer they've clearly had very little interest, so advertising it at market value is not likely to change that. Unless of course they hadn't been advertising it at all. Either way, my money is on "inheritance hound" being an accurate description.

In fact, you should take RR's advice and send them the following:

Rangeroverover said:

Write an old fashioned letter to the elderly couple thanking them for their time and apologising for not going through with it. Explain that the rather sudden price hike made it unworkable

Dear Mr & Mrs XXX
Re: Shop and House

As I'm sure you are now aware we are unable to take up your offer as the rather sudden extra £300 per month as instigated by Inheritance Hound...

Edited by Centurion07 on Thursday 10th November 10:04