Recovering rent from commercial tenant?

[gareth h]

I have an industrial unit which is currently being sold, the tenant who has surrendered his lease hasn’t paid any rent for a couple of years and owes circa £40k, I have tried to be supportive during this period, he has repeatedly committed to making some payments when X of Y of his invoices is settled, but has not done so.
Although under the terms of his lease the building should be left in the same state that he found it he has made modifications that I am having to reverse at my cost for my buyer to accept, which has p*ssed me off
Now I know the government COVID legislation means a tenant cannot be evicted, but now he has left am I able to take legal action to recover outstanding monies?

[anonymous-user]

Yes, commercial leases are very easy to enforce.

No fannying about like Residential, -don't pay? - Straight to Court action.

[soxboy]

Had the lease formally been surrendered, ie has there been a Deed of Surrender?

If you are selling the building are you getting a higher value for it than you would with a tenant in situ? If you are I would just draw a line under it otherwise it sounds like you could be chasing forever.

If the outgoing tenant takes any advice you should be aware that in respect of remedial works you are chasing him for there is a cap at the diminution in value.

[gareth h]

soxboy said:

Had the lease formally been surrendered, ie has there been a Deed of Surrender?

If you are selling the building are you getting a higher value for it than you would with a tenant in situ? If you are I would just draw a line under it otherwise it sounds like you could be chasing forever.

If the outgoing tenant takes any advice you should be aware that in respect of remedial works you are chasing him for there is a cap at the diminution in value.

He has signed the deed of surrender which the solicitor is planning to date on completion of sale, this worked to the tenants advantage too as it allowed him to move into a much cheaper unit on a local farm.
The remedial works aren’t too expensive as the buyer has accepted most of the changes can remain, if I had to remove them all it would run into thousands, what I need to do is high hundreds.
I’m really trying to determine whether legal action is prevented under the governments COVID legislation.

[jamescodriver]

My understanding was whilst you couldn't evict them for non-payment, the one thing you could do was to pursue them through the courts for the monies owed..


https://www.stevens-bolton.com/site/insights/artic...

[surveyor]

Do they have the money? Don't throw good money trying to recover money that is not there...

I think you may struggle with this one - but actually the dilaps may be more achievable. It is worth looking at whether they are still protected as no longer a tenant.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-laws-and-co...

https://gunnercooke.com/commercial-rent-coronaviru...

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

£40K plus out of pocket? I'd be pursuing him for it, even just to make his life hard.