fixture and fittings dispute

swatkatz01

This is for a shop not a house but there was no section for business's

2 Years ago my brother bought a takeaway with the agreement he will take over the rental of the takeaway from him and agreed this with the landlord. In the sale of the store, the agreement also stated that all the equipment such as fryer, pizza oven, fridges etc are part of the sale, essentially buying everything off him.

2 years down the line, the takeaway is closed, my brother has wanted to sell the equipment to raise capital to pay remainder of the debts. The landlord has now come and said none of these equipment are the property of my brother as they were the landlords from the get go and the person we bought it from didnt own any of it he simply rented the takeaway like we did with the equipment already in place, so we bought the takeaway under a false agreement.

before we go down a costly lawsuit with the person we bought it from, just want some advice on would we have a case against the previous owner? does our contract become void due to him selling something that wasnt his?

thanks in advance

Slithery

It all depends on the wording of the contracts, without seeing them we'd all just be guessing - commercial tenancies don't come under the same set of laws as residential tenancies.

eddddy

swatkatz01 wrote: »

2 Years ago my brother bought a takeaway with the agreement he will take over the rental of the takeaway from him and agreed this with the landlord. In the sale of the store, the agreement also stated that all the equipment such as fryer, pizza oven, fridges etc are part of the sale, essentially buying everything off him.

Your wording is a bit vague - what did your brother actually 'buy'?

If he bought the lease of an equipped restaurant, now the lease is over he must return the restaurant with the equipment.

If he bought the lease of an empty restaurant, and separately bought the equipment - it now appears that the seller didn't own the equipment, so your brother should claim the money for the equipment back from the seller.

davidmcn

swatkatz01 wrote: »

The landlord has now come and said none of these equipment are the property of my brother as they were the landlords from the get go

So, the seller said he owned the equipment, and now the landlord says they own the equipment. Have you seen any convincing evidence about who actually owns it?

Does the lease of the premises refer to the equipment?

swatkatz01

Yes the seller said he owned the equipment and it was included within the sale of the takeaway and was transfering his lease of 5 years over to my brother to carry the remainder 2 years of it

(cant insert a link for image as im a "new user")

theres a document that says "Sale of remainder of lease" then "sale of fixture and fittings" with a list of the contents of the shop

G_M

The forum is not really a business advice forum -however

swatkatz01 wrote: »

This is for a shop not a house but there was no section for business's

2 Years ago my brother bought a takeaway

Freehold?
Lease?
Rental?

with the agreement he will take over the rental of the takeaway from him

'take over' what from who?

and agreed this with the landlord.
Is the LL the same as 'him'?

In the sale of the store,

So was this a sale or a rental?

the agreement also stated that all the equipment such as fryer, pizza oven, fridges etc are part of the sale, essentially buying everything off him.
Sale or rental? Very different! Did he buy the property, + F&Fs, or was he renting it with the F&Fs?


2 years down the line, the takeaway is closed, my brother has wanted to sell the equipment to raise capital to pay remainder of the debts. The landlord has now come and said none of these equipment are the property of my brother as they were the landlords from the get go
ee above. What was sold? What was rented?



and the person we bought it from
Please clarify who is who in this set up.



didnt own any of it he simply rented the takeaway like we did with the equipment already in place, so we bought the takeaway under a false agreement.
Well IF you bought something which did not belong to the seller, then it still belongs to the original owner.


before we go down a costly lawsuit with the person we bought it from, just want some advice on would we have a case against the previous owner? does our contract become void due to him selling something that wasnt his?

I doubt the entire contract is void, but that part that was not his to sell would be excluded. You could therefore sue for breach of contract as he failed to sell you the F&Fs as per the contract you both agreed.