Cafe lease - rubbish equipment

[Jochef]

Hi
I wondered if anyone could help with some advice or point me in the right direction

My husband and I took a 5 year lease on a Cafe in Cumbria in March 2024.

Long story short - the equipment is simply not up to scratch and it’s very difficult to run the business how we would like to because of the equipment.

The landlord has replaced the dishwasher - that took a year, and recently the oven died, which we had to pay to have repaired. I’ve paid to have the fridge fixed as it was running hot and we’ve bought a lot of new equipment ourselves.

He has offered to ‘go halves’ with us on anything we want to buy - which, obviously we’re not prepared to do.

We have rent arrears now, which I am aiming to clear by mid November.

The thought of staying here for another 3 years makes us feel very miserable.

The business is good, we get cracking reviews and have a good local regular clientele, however, we are finding the landlord very difficult.

Does anyone know how we stand legally ? Sadly we’ve not documented anything, though there is a storeroom with a lot of broken kitchen appliances in it…..

Thank you for all your replies.
Quite right live and learn, it’s been a very expensive learning curve.
i will look for a contract solicitor- out of the area though, it’s a very small town

I guess it’s another 3 years.

Running a cafe is really hard OP, sending best wishes

Sorry OP but I think this is on you and you have perhaps been naive in taking on the lease and what it covers. It's usual for the tenant to be 100% responsible for equipment and you take it as you find it, on you to check it was in an acceptable state and serviced when you took it on and if not make sure you aren't on the hook to hand back shiny new condition items which it sounds like you quite possibly are responsible for. If so I'm quite amazed your landlord has entertained any requests from you for repairs etc

No, we have bought our own since opening.

what items?

Where in your contract does it specify that your landlord should be paying for the maintenance of the cooker or the fridge? Or paying for your electricity? I would expect you, as the business owner, to be 100% responsible for all these things, unless your lease specifically says you are not. The landlord would be responsible for the building, but not the items you need for the business.

If the equipment was provided then surely it is his responsibility to maintain and replace.

Did you not get legal advice on this?
Often it's down to the tenant to repair and replace everything

Commercial leases aren't like domestic where the landlord changes your light fittings or maintains your white goods.

You need to engage a commercial property solicitor and get them to go through your lease. The standard lease afaik is full and repairing IE tenant is responsible for everything inside the bricks and mortar of the premises.

Pissing off your landlord could have serious financial consequences if they decide to follow the letter of the lease.

For example in the terms of my last commercial lease if I defaulted on the rent or gave up and left the premises I was legally on the line to pay the rent for the rest of the term of the lease which was a 10 year lease. That would bankrupt me as I had to take the lease out in my personal name, not in my ltd co. name.

Industrial microwave
fridges x 2
freezer x 2
bain marie
toaster x 3
industrial airfryer

Just beggars belief that someone who has admitted the lease is in "legal speak" to them hasn't got appropriate advice prior to taking on a five year lease.

Yes - we were very foolish, we know that.
The business is doing well and we love it.
We had an altercation today with our LL that has left us feeling shit tbh.

Thanks once again for your replies, made things a bit clearer.

If it helps, you are far from the only people to have made this mistake. So be kind to yourselves about the past mistakes but do get swift advice now to make the right decisions going forward

We are left wondering why we’ve paid £30K plus VAT for a Cafe that said quite clearly at the estate agents that it was fully equipped and ready to go..

It’s a hard lesson. Thank you for all your feedback.

When DH is awake I shall discuss all this with him.

He is a Veteran and can be very impulsive, I’m trying to keep it all very calm and work through it.

Property solicitor here. You need advice from a solicitor specialising in commercial property/landlord and tenant work.

It’s all in the drafting of the lease but likelihood is all the equipment is your responsibility, as is the state of repair of the property more generally. The landlord likely has the ability to make a claim for dilapidations at the end of the lease if the property is not returned in the state it’s in at the end of the lease however it so ends.

Also highly likely that if the landlord forfeits the lease due to none payment of rent you’d have no way of “getting the money back”/taking him to court for it. The risk and default is yours.

I agree, I'm worried op doesn't understand the dilapidations point either

Or the ease with which the landlord could forfeit the lease for non payment of rent

You say you asked for a bill every month, and eventually received one after six months that has put you in arears...what has happened to the money you had earmarked for that bill every month?

And you want to go to the landlord and say

“yeah yeah I know I’m in arrears but I think you should pay me back for all this despite not having the foggiest idea what the contract stipulates”

Exactly

and if the op was expecting a bill sooner than 6 months..,. It would appear no enquiry was made of the ll when they would receive this bill

so 6 months of not paying a penny for electricity and then indignant when the bill arrives

Your husband being impulsive because he's a veteran doesn't sound like a great start.

And your LL isn't being crafty by telling you to sort your own shit out! Poor LL, they're doing more than is necessary and offering to go halves on equipment which they do not legally need to do! Maybe read through all the documents and speak to a solicitor next time you expect someone to provide a cafe fully furnished with equipment that meets you standards.

I'm sorry but you don't sound equipped to be running a business when your business is in this much trouble and you insist it's doing well? Making money isn't the be all and end of all of success if that's what you're gauging it on.

OP just a little aside about the oven which is 'hard wired'. This could be that it runs on 3 phase electricity (specific to high powered commercial ovens) a decent electrician can tell you.

We've owned restaurants and cafes in the past with a mixture of owned outright and leased equipment. Leasing a coffee machine is a good idea as servicing is usually included but for most things owning outright is better (you can sell in the future). But as many PPs have said you really need to speak to a commercial contracts lawyer so that you fully understand what you have signed. As you say 'lesson learned' but you should have done this before you signed the lease. You need to know who is responsible for what, when the rent will increase and by how much, and what the penalty is for breaking the lease early. Good luck.