Lease confusion / landlord fleecing us?

beefster

Not sure if this is the right forum but hopefully someone with a knowledge of the workings of Lease agreements maybe able to help.

Our Village sports club is in danger of going under due to the heavy handed approach of our local council. In short they are demanding £5500 per year for something that was previously included in our current lease.

Outline of the issue.
We have had a lease agreement with the council for 12 years with 3 to run. This included lease of land and groundsman prepared football and cricket pitches. Recently we have employed our own groundsman and sought a reduction in fee's charged to us. However the council moved the goalposts and said the lease is for the land only and we must continue to pay the full ammount. Looking at the lease this is true however in the documents leading up to the lease being signed it clearly states land rent - peppercorn rate - £100 plus £xxxx groundsman fee's for provision of pitches. The lease however does not actually say this. So now we are paying a groundsman plus the council fee which previously included a groundsaman.... paying double in effect!

Have we a leg to stand on bearing in mind we have all the paperwork leading up to the lease being signed indicating the basis of the total fee was as stated above.
If not do we have any recompence from the solicitor who set up the lease on our behalf? It seems to me they where incompitant in not getting this detailed?

Anyone have any idea... We are a smal village and this sports and social club is at the hub of it... desperate to keep it running. Council show little empathy at present. We do not wish to go to the papers etc at present as the lease is due for renewal soon (2012).

Any help / advice most welcome.

Thanks.

Richard_Webster

Have we a leg to stand on bearing in mind we have all the paperwork leading up to the lease being signed indicating the basis of the total fee was as stated above.

Probably not, but it is worth a try - Councils are susceptible to Political pressure so get your councillors on your side.

If not do we have any recompence from the solicitor who set up the lease on our behalf? It seems to me they where incompitant in not getting this detailed?

It will depend on whether the solicitor saw the previous correspondence etc and/or whether he explained the contents of the lease. he should have set out the main terms in it: the land included, the rent, your obligations, and the Council's obligations. If he clearly said in a report that you had to pay £XXXX and the Council's obligations were [various, but not including maintaining the ground] then he will quite reasonably say he explained it to you and you didn't read what he said. If there was no such explanation and you can clearly show that he knew that the Council's obligations should include the maintenance then you may have a case.

beefster

Solicitor new the obligations because we have letters from him detailing the "general overview of the lease agreement" pre its signing.... however the over view is not duplicated onto the lease.

Thanks for the input. Councillors and MP are next port of call.

Ta

chappers

beefster wrote: »

However the council moved the goalposts .

You could try using jumpers instead.

Bethankim

I will have to dig it out,but there is a big push by the government about local communities and obtaining assets for the community like buildings..its been a while sisnce i have worked on this in any detaill the other port of call may well be your rural community council and awards for all which small groups can apply for funding to promote and pay for stuff usually under 5k a year..but every little helps.
may also be worth getting intouch with sport england to see if they can help.

make a stink, as others have said - if everyone in the village starts jumping up and down you will likely get somewhere..its not so much about the rent its about protecting a assest that keep the village alive.

Jowo_2

I think Landlordzone forums have a forum for commercial leases so you might find more specialist/knowledgeable posters there.

beefster

Thanks guys,
I will follow up the leads.