The hairdresser problem has taken hours of research, should really have got it sorted sooner, but commercial Landlord and Tenant wasn't covered in any great detail when I did LLB, so I had to do a crash course in business leases before even attempting to sort hairdresser's problem out. Finally came across a very recent case which may well prove to be extremely helpful.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) offer a mediation service for business tenants with problems, I've recommended that my hairdresser gets in touch with them to see if there is possibility for negotiation with the landlord. The ruling in the case I mentioned may prove to be a useful bargaining tool against the landlord and may also, if nothing else, save me from the bubble perm.
Seems a bit unfair that residential tenants can take their claims to tribunal (the LVT), but there is no such facility (that I'm aware of) for business tenants, who of course experience just as many leasehold problems as 'dwellers'. It's the small businesses that struggle to find legal help, because any sort of litigation is often too expensive for them to contemplate.
2 comments:
Maid, welcome to the murky, nasty and counter-intuitive world of landlord and tenant. Actually business tenants have some advantages over residential leaseholders, but business leases do tend to be horribly one sided in the landlord's favour.
I actually enjoy this stuff - although I'm primarily housing law based. Everybody seems to think it is like land law, but there isn't much involved, and the litigation is fun, if not cheap.
Hello NL,
Yes it appears that the hairdresser's lease was a little one sided to say the least.
He's off to mediation shortly, hopefully a happy ending will follow. I think that the downturn in the economy could work in his favour because the lease expires at Christmas and landlord may not quickly find a new tenant.
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