Rented business premises - reant areas, notice from Agency

gettingready

AbbieCadabra - yes, absolutly. Lack of legal advice before signing the contract, spending money od doing the place up rather than having legal back up.. bit, massive mistake

Landlord is gaining here big time, at every level.

Savvy_Sue

I don't think this is likely to end happily, however it goes, but obviously it's worth your DD getting out as inexpensively as possible.

So I'd suggest a clear head (which I can see she probably doesn't have! maybe she can 'borrow' one, see below), a pot of strong coffee, a calendar showing her bookings, her receipts for furniture etc, a large pad of paper, and a calculator and / or a spreadsheet.

On one sheet of paper or worksheet she needs to itemise how much she owes / is going to owe for arrears, rent to the end of the notice period, utility bills and breakfasts - what else (and note I'm only talking business costs here, and clearly she's got to eat herself ...) Obviously the only one she's got any option of NOT paying is the arrears and rent, so I guess the others have to be a priority for eating up the income, which comes next ...

So, on another sheet of paper, projected income from the B&B - is she fully booked now until the end of the notice period? If not, is there a clear point at which the bookings tail off? (I realise they probably start to pick up from July, but there we go ...)

I am just guessing here, never having run a B&B in my life, and gathering that this is now all a bit of a disaster area, that the income from these guests is going to be needed to pay the utility bills. However, is there any mileage for closing some of the rooms early, and attempting to sell off some of the furniture, eg the flat screen TVs?

Now, this is my next question - is there a local association of B&B owners (because they might be in the market for upgrading their properties?) who might be supportive? Chamber of Commerce? Because she really would benefit from someone 'holding her hand' in all this, wouldn't she?

Has she established to her own satisfaction that the arrears are as high as the agent says, btw? You said £6000, but that the rent was only £1300, that would be over 4 months, but maybe there are penalty clauses attached to non-payment?

BTW, from that link you gave earlier it still looks possible to book AFTER the end of June: she might want to look into that sooner rather than later, and also finding other places to suggest to those who have booked already, which is where the network of B&B owners comes in.