termination of verbal contract

paul112

We store our caravan on land attached to property, together with over 100 other caravans.


We have stored it here for over 5 years. We, along side the other caravan owners have never had a written contract, just a verbal agreement to pay the annual fee every April.


The property owner has recently sold and the new owners have put signs up saying they are no longer continuing with caravan storage and caravans need to be removed with immediate effect. The only communication we have is an email address which keeps responding with a standard response. They have also hinted in the email response that access will be difficult/not possible in the next few weeks because they are changing the security arrangements (we all currently have a key to the gates) and the new owners have removed all the locks to the gates, leaving the site open to anyone.


The new owners are refusing to communicate with anyone.


Where do we stand? We are happy to relocate our caravan but we have paid for storage up until April so this is a few hundred pounds. We have emailed to suggest a partial refund but they are not responding.


Many thanks

InsideInsurance

You firstly would need to refer to your agreement in terms of cancellation terms, notice periods, refunds etc - this is the problem with verbal contracts.

Secondly, who did you contract with? A person or a business?

Thirdly, what was sold, the property or a business?

Assuming its a private person that you contracted with then your "rights" remain with the person and dont transfer with the sale of the land and so its the original owners you'd need to chase subject to the terms you agreed.

If its a business and its the business that has been sold then the new owners of the business would have taken on the assets and liability of that business and so its them youd need to prove the terms of the agreement to and enforce them as appropriate

paul112

Thank you very much for your response.


We paid the storage fees to the property owner. It was all very casual and we just paid every April on the understanding that this would give us 12 months storage. No terms were ever discussed other than we had to agree to keep the gates locked at all times for security reasons.


The property was sold with the caravan storage, stables & fisheries all included. The new owners have mentioned in what looks to be a standard email that there are problems with the contract between themselves and the previous owner in relation to the caravan storage and as such they are terminating the caravan storage immediately. But, surely this is something they need to take up with their solicitor between themselves and the previous owner before forcing us all to leave 7 months early.

The previous owner knowingly took a full 12 months rent from us in April, knowing full well that the sale
of his property was in the process of going through. He didn't even contact any of the caravan owners to let us know he was leaving and that we would be having new "landlords".

InsideInsurance

But was that "owner" Mr Owner or Owner Ltd ?

Given its messy and unclear who/ what you contracted with, what the terms were etc I would attempt to also claim the percentage refund from the original owner

paul112

Thank you.


I completely agree with what you have advised. We will pursue the matter with the original owner. Like you say, we don't know whether or not he has put the income from the storage though his business or whether it was personal.


If and when we get in touch with him, if he tells us that the fees where put through the business them am I right in saying that we should then pursue this with the new owners. And, are they under obligation to continue with the contract given that we have all paid up to April 2015?

Bantex_2

paul112 wrote: »

Thank you.


I completely agree with what you have advised. We will pursue the matter with the original owner. Like you say, we don't know whether or not he has put the income from the storage though his business or whether it was personal.


If and when we get in touch with him, if he tells us that the fees where put through the business them am I right in saying that we should then pursue this with the new owners. And, are they under obligation to continue with the contract given that we have all paid up to April 2015?

It would all depend on what they had bought.

paul112

The property, the land, stables, fisheries & caravan storage

InsideInsurance

paul112 wrote: »

If and when we get in touch with him, if he tells us that the fees where put through the business them am I right in saying that we should then pursue this with the new owners. And, are they under obligation to continue with the contract given that we have all paid up to April 2015?

You'd need to clarify what the "business" was, ie a Ltd company or Sole Trader. If its a Ltd then to confirm that they did sell the Ltd itself and not just its assets

If its a Ltd and that was sold then by default all would go with the company unless the contract of sale states otherwise (and even if it states otherwise there is only so much that can be carved out)

If its a sole trader then he cannot have sold himself, slavery is illegal, and so it comes down to the contract of sale of exactly what assets/liability he sold and didnt sell

If hes a bit of a gentlemans agreement/ done on a handshake kind of guy then its likely to be highly messy and possibly a very poorly written sales document which may be heavily open to interpretation.

Bantex_2

paul112 wrote: »

The property, the land, stables, fisheries & caravan storage

Are you sure they did not just buy the physical assets?

paul112

I'm not sure about anything to be perfectly honest. And I don't know how to go about finding out whether the original owner sold everything as a ltd or sole trader. I have a feeling he wont be willing to communicate with anyone, given that he didn't even have the decency to inform us that he had sold up and was leaving. We came back from holiday to find the notices up everywhere. If we hadn't been returning from holiday then who knows when we would have next gone up there. No attempts have been made to contact any owners. Its all very unreasonable I think from both parties - original and new owners.

InsideInsurance

paul112 wrote: »

I'm not sure about anything to be perfectly honest. And I don't know how to go about finding out whether the original owner sold everything as a ltd or sole trader.

Simultaneously approach both, and ask for a refund or whatever it is you believe you are entitled to.

If either party refuse because they say the other side is the one liable then get them to clarify the points of Ltd -v- Sole trader and what was actually sold.

Are there any signs up around the place naming the "businesses"? You could look on Companies House's registry for similar named companies and see if theres been any recent filings to change the directors etc.