Commercial lease terminated….or was it??!!

[buddy79]

Can anyone help with this commercial lease query?
DH was in an art collective back in 2014. The group leased a property which they then rented out as small artist spaces. DH and one other were the original leaseholders for a fixed term period which terminated in July 2015 ( it states this termination date clearly in the lease). The collective didn’t work out, DH left, never did anything further and assumed all was over… however we have just had some emails from the landlord saying the property is in arrears of £14k and as the lease was never “handed back” DH is still liable!! I’m very much hoping someone is going to advise me this is not the case!!!

Do you have a copy of the lease? There will be something in there about termination. But - 10 years ago? Assume that they vacated at the end of the lease.

Go to see a litigation solicitor who also has a commercial property lawyer at their firm. They'll tell you. Nothing we can do without seeing the lease, obviously.

How long was the original agreement? Do you know if it was contracted out of the 1954 Act? How long after lease expiry did the property become vacant?

It may be that the Landlord is using the previous occupation to shelter from a business rates liability.

Also, if the collective handed back keys to the Landlord and they were accepted, that could be construed as surrender by operation off law.

And has the property remained vacant since the collective vacated? Has the Landlord accessed it at all?

Not enough info, what does the lease say, does he have to formally hand back? In writing, ? This is purely about implementation of the contract , so what does it say on this?

Oh God see I don’t think it is vacated - DH personally left but as far as we know other artists continued to use and pay rent in the space, and still do. The payments etc were all handled by someone else! We do have a copy of the lease - it is titled “14 month business lease” and the start and termination dates are clearly in it. Uh-oh.

It doesn’t say he has to formally hand back. It doesn’t say anything except a rent review is due the day after the lease ends.. we never heard anything at all about that. Sorry I’m a complete amateur, not sure what to look for! It says it is excluded from the 1954 act.

Whose name is the agreement in then?

If it's contracted out of the 1954 Act but occupation has continued (and the Landlord had accepted rent) it has become a periodic tenancy.

If it's in the personal name of your DH, he could have issues if the current occupiers have never paid rent. What period does the £14K cover?

If the current occupiers have been paying rent and occupying, there's an argument that the Landlord has accepted an assignment of the lease so your husband could be ok.

Thanks for all the replies… yes he should have been much more careful. He assumed a new lease not involving him had been put in place, or at least that he was no longer liable after the termination date, but it’s not that simple is it!! There must have been some rent payments going on otherwise the arrears would be much higher.
So I need legal advice really?!

Or rather DH does…

If it was a partnership lease or sole trader then yes he is liable. If the property is not returned at the end date then the lease rolls on. I would definitely get a lawyer. As a commercial landlord this debt won't be written off.