Commercial property - implied lease or not - but no rent paid

[bribri]

My small, company has been reisding in a property for a number of years. The person I believed to be the responsible person gave us the key. On a number of occasion we have asked who do we pay rent to and how much. No reply.

 

Now the overall landlord wants to evict us and will serve one month's notice and is blaming us for not paying the rent.

 

Questions, can they evict us or should they first offer us a chance to regularise the situation - but we can't afford backdated payments.

 

Secondly, is there anything to sya that it should be more than one month's notice.

 

Thirdly, even if we had a lease agreement, ho wmuch notice would they be likely to give i.e. is it worth challenging.

 

Thank you

[Aequitas]

We do not really have enough to go on here. Can we have a bit more detail, please?

[bribri]

ok. Guide me with some questions and I'll answer as best I can.

[MrShed]

Terms of contract?

[MrShed]

A lot of this doesnt make sense to me. How was the property found originally? I specifically dont understand why you have asked how much rent, you must surely have known this prior to taking occupancy?

[bribri]

It is a council commercial property. We were invited to take occupation. The person who we believed had management of the building gave us the keys. We kept asking for a lease but never received anything. The council is now doing a review of its buildings.

 

There is no written contract thus no terms to refer to.

[MrShed]

We were invited to take occupation.

 

I'm still not getting it.

 

Presumably the council dont just ring random numbers until someone answers who wants a commercial property?

 

And surely before taking occupation you asked about rent? You didnt think you were renting it for free?

[MrShed]

And - no written contract doesnt mean no terms. What was verbally agreed?

[bribri]

I'm still not getting it.

 

. That's where I am at.

 

It seems that the person who rented us the space was slack. Your questions are reasonable and the same questions I asked. The answer given was that it will be sorted out later. Now someone else has taken over managing the building and their solution is to begin eviction proceedings on the grounds of non-payment of rent - I believe. Am still waiting for eviction notice.

 

My point is - if we offered to pay rent and asked many times how much but none was requested is that our fault. There may be some verbal terms, but none relate to period of tenancy or rent amounts and anyway I think it will be argued that the person who made arrangements with us didn't have the authority to do so. Bit of a mess - local government eh?

[MrShed]

Certainly not your fault (the entire situation), but it smacks me as frankly bizarre that you took occupancy of a property without even knowing the rent.

 

Anyway, I suppose that is by the by. Without particular terms in a contract, I suspect that your rights and security are extremely limited. However, I am not an expert in commercial lets. Hopefully Aequitas can advise further on the ramifications of lack of any kind of contract (verbal or written).

 

You may also wish to post on the LandlordZone forums - they have greater expertise in commercial lets than we do here.

[Aequitas]

This is certainly a strange one. The absence of any agreed terms makes your position difficult. I think what you have is a tenancy at will which carries no security of tenure.

 

It is a bit unreasonable to demand you leave for non-payment of rent when you have been asking to pay. I think you need to go over the head of the person you are dealing and/or get onto your councillor.