please help, dishonest commerical landlord.

karawong

I am in commercial lease with a landlord who is very dishonest and keeps trying to cone me out of money by over claim expenses and keeps forcing me to do improvement on his property even though the lease states I only need to maintain the cosmetic appearance inside the property. I am extremely stressed about dealing with him and as a result, I am looking to sell my lease at a very low price to a potential buyer, yet he sends me a letter demanding the improvement to be done otherwise he will not agree on the assignment.

Before I took over the business premises (a chinese take away), the previous leaseholder told me that the landlord had the original gas certificate for both the flat above and the business premise below, so that I emailed the landlord and asked him to send me the copy, however, in his email he only attached the gas certificate for the flat above, but not the business premise below. he gave me an excuse that for some reason, he couldn't scan the document. I know I was very naive and believed in what he had said and this proved to be a huge mistake.


Just after several months in to my business, he demanded a gas certificate from me, saying I was not allowed to operate my business without one, then I asked him about the previous one, and he said he didn't have one and it's only my misunderstanding. The obtain the gas certificate, it cost me about two thousand pounds. But he didn't stop there, he kept over claiming money from me. For example, it only cost £500 for cleaning the extractor unit, but he told me it cost £800 and made excuses for us to pay the expense by cash rather than by other means. For anything we paid, we asked him for a receipt, but he said he had sent it in post. But I have never received them.

Because his honesty, I have kept all the email exchanges as well as voice recording everything we have agreed and said.

Now i am looking to take legal actions against him to prevent me selling my lease, tricking me into believing that he had the gas certificate, as well as over claiming money from me. in addition, his lies results me making unwise and wrong financial decision, shall i knew that there was no gas or electricity certificate, I would not have gone ahead with signing the lease, as it will put both myself and my staff at risk by operating the business. Thank god there have not been any accident over the period when the gas and electricity had not had in place.



Initially I was thinking to take him to court for fraud, but after speaking to a friend in legal sector, he advised me to sue him for misrepresentation which would allow me to make claim for my financial damage as well as rescission on my lease (I am desperate to get out of this lease, he is by far the lowest, aggressive and manipulate person who i have dealt with in my life.), I was wondering if anyone here has experienced the same before and what did you do? on one hand, all I what just to sell this shop cheap and quick, and move on, as I am a final year of PhD student and I have limited time on hand for this kind of hassle. on the other hand, I do not want this landlord to continue to live as a parasite of this society, sucking hard working people's pocket dry. If I just keep quiet and sell the shop quick, he is going to do the same to the next tenants in this property on other properties (he owes a lot of commercial properties and residential properties, and i think he only become rich by keep conning people out of money.) please kindly advice what should I do.



Any advice will be greatly appreciated.



Kara

princeofpounds

Hi Kara,

unfortunately this is mainly a residential forum, and commercial leases normally require the attention of lawyers as they can vary so much more than residential ones.

You might want to try landlordzone forums, there are some posters over there who could have a view.

Flat_Eric

Hi Kara
I'd recommend getting some legal advice on this as there appear to be several matters for consideration. As you are a final year PHD student, does your university have a law department/do they have the facility to assist with legal matters?

How long have you been renting the chinese and did you have anyone look over the paperwork for you when you signed up??