Tenants Rights in absence of contract/Tenants obligations when no lease in place

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Hi all

My elderly mum had a tenant move into the (formally residential) property she is renting out as an office. For various reasons she did not get around to giving him a renewed lease. He had been in the property for approximately a year before the new lease was required. She hasn't been in contact with him for over 13 months and just noticed that he has not paid any rent for over 13 months. It appears as though he decided not to pay any money until he got his lease.

In the event that he has not set the money aside for her I would intend for him to leave the property. I may be wrong but I am under the impression that as the property is let as commercial rather than residential the tenant would have less rights(?)
I guess she would have to give him 30 days notice to leave but am wondering if there's anything I am overlooking.

Any Advice appreciated

Thanks
 
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Not to be rude,..but....are you cut out to be a landlord if you don't notice 16 consecutive months of unpaid rent?
 
No worries - I understand where you are coming from but this is the situation I am in at present.
 
The first thing I would do is to ring him and ask him why the rent has not been paid.
 
Did you get a deposit, did he ever pay rent. Who pays the utilities/rates etc. Does he live in the premises. Why did you suddently need a lease after one year. You need a solicitor to get him out I would imagine.
 
The first thing I would do is to ring him and ask him why the rent has not been paid.
Did you get a deposit, did he ever pay rent. Who pays the utilities/rates etc. Does he live in the premises. Why did you suddently need a lease after one year. You need a solicitor to get him out I would imagine.
Hi
Thanks for the quick reply. I believe my mum decided to let him off the deposit.
He is supposed to pay the rates.
He doesn't live in the premises, as agreed he uses it as an area for his business.
Yes he had paid rent for about 2 years.
His colleague had originally signed a lease of approximately 5 years.
Then about midway through the lease his colleague was leaving so we agreed that we could place a new name on the lease for the remainder of the term. So we swooped names and he paid for approximately 2 years until a new contract was due.
We did not give him a new lease, he stayed in the building and has not paid since approximately mid 2018. He reminded me once about the lease, Mum didn't get around to it and hadn't noticed he had stopped paying rent.
 
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My elderly mum had a tenant move into the (formally residential) property she is renting out as an office.
He is supposed to pay the rates.
He doesn't live in the premises, as agreed he uses it as an area for his business.

Is the property still registered as a domestic property or was a change of use application granted? Rates only apply to commercial properties.

If it's still residential, I'd imagine he has acquired tenancy rights and you will need to carefully go though the correct process. Might be time for a solicitor to advise on an approach that won't bring on more problems.
 
Fail to see how the person using the property has tenancy rights if he lives elsewhere.
 
Fail to see how the person using the property has tenancy rights if he lives elsewhere.

To flip the question, is it possible to let a residential property in a manner that does not fall under the legislation? To my knowledge, there is no criteria as to how long the resident has to stay in the property, their rights do not change if they stay elsewhere.
 
Flip it another way, you cant have two permanent residences. But besides that it’s clearly not landlord residential tenancy as the person is Irving elsewhere.
 
Hi All
First of All - THANKS to everyone who has replied. As my first post on this site I may have confused matters a little.
Essentially the tenant in the commercial property had a 2.5 year lease which had expired. We didn't give him a new lease. He stopped paying when he didn't get a new lease and has been in the building for 16 months without paying rent.
1) What are the tenants obligations in the absence of a formal lease?
2) What are my rights IF I want to get him out?
 
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1) What are the tenants obligations in the absence of a formal lease?
2) What are my rights IF I want to get him out?


I'm not a solicitor (clearly you need one) but work in property matters...

Q1 - in the absence of a new lease, the provisions of the old lease continue on.

Q2 - under what grounds does the landlord now want the tenant out? the landlord can't just change their mind on a whim, there needs to be consistent upholding of the terms of the lease. If you can you demonstrate that you attempted to apply the terms of the lease and the tenant refused to comply, then you have grounds to declare a breach of the lease and depending on the seriousness of the breach, eviction may be appropriate.

Generally, once a tenant has been in place for more than 5 years then they have gain rights of lease renewal. This is because they have established their business and livelihood in the premises and are entitled to protect that.

Non-residential landlord and tenant "rules of the game" are well established in precedent law and while there is no RTB/regulator involved that doesn't mean there aren't strict rules.

If I was in your shoes I'd be looking at the following;
  1. Relieve your elderly mother of this hassle and bother by either taking on the matter yourself or get a letting agent to do it. There are major advantages of utilizing a letting agent, the biggest is they are a buffer between you and the tenant and you won't get pressurized or side tracked by a smart talking tenant.
  2. Consult a solicitor to prioritize a course of action
  3. Start demanding that the rent is paid up to date and don't be worried whether they have set the money aside, thats for them to worry about.

Hope that helps, come back and tell us how you get on.
 
I'm not a solicitor (clearly you need one) but work in property matters...

Q1 - in the absence of a new lease, the provisions of the old lease continue on.

Q2 - under what grounds does the landlord now want the tenant out? the landlord can't just change their mind on a whim, there needs to be consistent upholding of the terms of the lease. If you can you demonstrate that you attempted to apply the terms of the lease and the tenant refused to comply, then you have grounds to declare a breach of the lease and depending on the seriousness of the breach, eviction may be appropriate.

Generally, once a tenant has been in place for more than 5 years then they have gain rights of lease renewal. This is because they have established their business and livelihood in the premises and are entitled to protect that.

Non-residential landlord and tenant "rules of the game" are well established in precedent law and while there is no RTB/regulator involved that doesn't mean there aren't strict rules.

If I was in your shoes I'd be looking at the following;
  1. Relieve your elderly mother of this hassle and bother by either taking on the matter yourself or get a letting agent to do it. There are major advantages of utilizing a letting agent, the biggest is they are a buffer between you and the tenant and you won't get pressurized or side tracked by a smart talking tenant.
  2. Consult a solicitor to prioritize a course of action
  3. Start demanding that the rent is paid up to date and don't be worried whether they have set the money aside, thats for them to worry about.

Hope that helps, come back and tell us how you get on.
Hi
Thanks for your detailed reply. I don't have an update at present but will keep you posted.

Thanks again
 
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