Quick one regarding lease assignment

paddyrg

ceewash wrote: »

. Does anyone know how this depreciation figure would be calculated? Any guess of the amount?

Pretty academic to be frank, it'll be whatever you and landlord agree on.

ceewash

It is going to cost me £500 pa for 'depreciation'. £2000 in all. Should I cut and run?

jjlandlord

Are you saying that the lease is in your own name, then?

ceewash

Yes it's my business. My name and my husband in lease. Does that make a difference?

jjlandlord

ceewash wrote: »

Yes it's my business. My name and my husband in lease. Does that make a difference?

I was hoping that your business was a limited company and that the lease was in the company's name: There would have been no issue at all.

Anyway, if your landlord is now agreeable to proceed you should balance whatever it would cost you to what it would cost you not to sell.
As previously mentioned, costs of assignment could also be passed on to the buyer subject to negotiation.

This is not a straightforward legal matter and you should work with a solicitor knowledgeable in this area from now on.

ceewash

Yes I think he knows he has upper hand. I was just wondering whether £500 pa is a fair amount ? I am not sure where this figure comes from.

paddyrg

ceewash wrote: »

Yes I think he knows he has upper hand. I was just wondering whether £500 pa is a fair amount ? I am not sure where this figure comes from.

It's just a number. It's a number he feels he can get you to pay in order to get out of your contract, probably broadly based on amortisation of the repairs he did over your lease length as a part of your committing for so many years.

What are your options?

1) Swallow it, sell the business, get on with your life pronto
2) Pass it on to the buyer (if they'll stomach it)
3) Debate it
4) Some combination of the above

I'd imagine if you could persuade the business buyer to shell £666, landlord swallows £666, you swallow £667 yourself for instance, 4) might be the nicest way out.

More likely is that you beg the LL to reduce it, and just pay it so you can get out of the business now whilst you still have a buyer. It's what I would do. You're over a barrel, so take a deep breath, accept it and move on quickly - if you lost the sale you could lose a whole lot more...

ceewash

Thank you I needed to hear someone say that because it's what I was thinking. I don't want new person to think I'm in big argument with llord. Might put them off. And I don't think I'll win.

Savvy_Sue

And to be fair, it could have been a whole lot more than £500 pa ... and presumably the premises were always in reasonable repair. As paddy says, it's just a number the LL thinks he can get you to pay.

DH is involved in a charity where they wanted to move into better premises. There was a schedule of condition drawn up at the beginning of the lease, and that condition was pretty dire. But the rent was low, so the charity did a lot of work to make the premises usable - and STILL the landlord wanted to charge a huge amount at the end of the lease for 'repairs'. Some hard bargaining went on there ...

ceewash

Were you successful with your bargaining?