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Rights against your landlord

26th June 1982, Page 34
26th June 1982
Page 34
Page 34, 26th June 1982 — Rights against your landlord
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

YOU MAY OWN your own vehicles, but they must be housed — probably in someone else's garage. So if you do rent premises, you will need to know the answers to that most crucial question: What are your rights against your landlord?

When you enter into a lease or tenancy agreement, your rights and those of your landlord depend upon the terms of that agreement.

For instance: your roof leaks, a wall subsides or guttering becomes defective. You want to know whether or not you can require your landlord to fix it? Then consider the terms of the letting. In general, the law still allows landlord and tenant to make their own contractual beds, wherein they must thereafter lie.

Or suppose your landlord is bound to keep the structure of the building in good and substantial repair. Instead, he allows the place to go to rack and to ruin. Your business suffers as a result of your landlord's contract breaking (or "breach of covenant", to use the technical term)? Then you may take him to court. The law will protect you.

Naturally, it is important to you to make a fair and healthy agreement at the start of your tenancy and to know what you are (literally) letting yourself in for.

Courts put some very curious interpretations on words in leases. Example: you agree to "maintain" your premises in "good and substantial condition" and hand it over in that condition when you leave? Then it will not be good enough to keep the premises in the state of repair in which you found them. You will have to put them into good repair before you can "maintain them" in that condition — however much that may cost you. Moral: Do not begrudge your solicitor his fee when doing his best to see that you get the premises on the terms you bargain for.

The same law that may make life so difficult for you as a manager in the world of commercial vehicles or as an employer of staff does much to protect you as a business tenant — especially when the term of your tenancy comes to an end. So if you find that your lease is running out, do not panic — the chances are that you will not have to move out. Your landlord will only be entitled to possession against you in exceptional cases, such as: If he wants to use all or part of the premises for his own business or private purposes; If he needs possession in order to demolish or reconstruct the place; If you have persistently failed to pay your rent on time or otherwise to comply with your obligations; Or for some other "substantial reason".

If you are entitled to a new letting, your landlord is not entitled to charge whatever rent he thinks fit. If you cannot agree on fair terms for your new tenancy, then you are entitled to apply to the court to fix the rent and other terms for you.

Broadly, the judge will try to estimate what the premises would fetch, if they were put out for letting on the open market.

If your landlord agrees that you are entitled to stay on but demands a higher rent than you are prepared to pay — haggle, bargain, negotiate. But watch out for the time limits.

Before your landlord can get you out, he must serve notice on you (a "notice to quit") in a form laid down by statute. If you are unwilling to leave, you must serve a "counter notice". And then if you cannot come to terms with your landlord, you must make application to the court for a new letting — or to fix the appropriate rent — or both. If you do not do so within times laid down, you will lose your rights — for ever.

So if you run into this sort of problem with your landlord, yot should tell your solicitors and get their help not only in your negotiations but also to ensure that you keep within the time limits. They will also advise you on how to get the best valuatior for your premises and (where your landlord is threatening to demolish or reconstruct) whether it would be worth your while getting the opinion of an architect or surveyor.

Naturally, the same rules apply in reverse. You may, for instance, have let out part of your own premises and then find that you need them. You will have to wait until your tenant's lease expires. You ther serve a statutory notice on him, saying that you would oppose the grant of a new tenancy on the grounds that you require thi place for your own use or to demolish or reconstruct, as the case may be. Assuming that your reasons are genuine, you should get your possession.

If, though, you have no valid grounds for objecting to the grant of a new tenancy, you will still have to serve your notice if you wish to get your revised rent. If you can agree on new terms with your old tenant, well and good. Otherwise, he will have the right to take you to court and you will then do battli over rent.

Once again: do not try to figh this kind of case on your own. Get your solicitor to prepare aril to send the appropriate notices for you, so as to ensure that yipt do not miss the time limits and that you do get your procedure correct. Let him do your negotiations for you, if necessary with the help of an expert local estate agent or valuer. You would have about a much chance of doing the job correctly for yourself as your solicitor would of suddenly becoming a first-class lorry driver.

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