3+ months late rent

princeofpounds

If the company is listed on Companies House it exists, at least in a legal sense.

There is no rule that companies must have an online presence. Many don't, actually, because many companies are set up as legal structures, not necessarily to interact with customers. Don't think about a company as a shop or a factor or an office; it's just a legal entity.

There may be something dodgy about them, but probably not - my guess is that this is a one-man band (or near enough) who works as a sub-contractor and has a Ltd company to conduct his business through. He probably would find it harder to get rentals through a standard AST route as his apparent personal income is not that high, so chooses to rent via his business. Other scenarios are possible.

Anyway, yes, it's a commercial tenancy so you have to evict via that process. Let's hope your tenancy agreement was properly-drafted because you expose yourself to way more legal drafting risks vs. ASTs in some respects. Here is one link outlining the basics:
https://www.warekay.co.uk/news/litigation/how-to-evict-a-commercial-tenant/
Unfortunately I believe commercial repossessions are also suspended under Covid, but no harm in starting (or threatening) the process. If you're lucky and have a well-drafted tenancy you might have quicker options. Get a lawyer.

Good luck.

silvercar

Many people letting out property do so through a limited company. It has some tax advantages to do so. It also means that if properties are managed by letting agents, tenants are forced to deal with the letting agents rather than being easily able to contact the company. Nothing dodgy or illegal about it at all.
In your case it is the tenants who are a limited company, which means they have less rights than individuals letting under an AST. They don't get any protection of tenancy acts by law and are only governed by contract law.

Crashy_Time

allBlighty said:

Whoops, guess I explained that rather poorly.
I'll start again.

We own a house in Swindon which we purchased back in 2016.
A letting agent found someone to let out the house to. The house is let out via a company lease not the regular assured shorthold tenancy.

The company is a carpentry business. 
Interestingly enough, the company (carpentry guys) don't have any sort of online presence. I'm sure it would be very difficult to get much business without any sort of online presence these days.
This has made me think that perhaps the carpentry company is not genuine.

So the main issue, which I'll word(hopefully) better is as follows.
The carpentry company have not been paying since the start of the year. Despite much attempt from the letting agent to get the carpentry company to pay the rent arrears, nothing has happened. 
The carpentry company often would pay the rent one month late. Not really relevant but just thought it would be good to add.

As we rent a house in Bath, we are starting to feel the financial pinch. Because of this we plan to move to Swindon and live in the house (where the carpentry company is).

We have given a notice to quit to them as we can no longer afford this.  
After they leave, how can we get back the rental arrears.


Hopefully this makes more sense 

I hear the drugs trade has been quite disrupted lately....only kidding...kind of........Why does a carpentry company without an online presence and who you think can`t get much work need to rent property in the place where they are based? I could understand if you were renting out a shed but companies that supply accommodation to employees/clients are usually large national/multinational companies who would definitely have a shiny website....Am I totally misunderstanding what you posted?

steampowered

I'd evict the tenant ASAP.

After you have evicted the tenant, you could sue them for the outstanding rent through the county court system. However, if the company has no assets, a court judgment is not very useful. The fact that this company has no online presence suggests you might find it difficult to find any assets to enforce a court judgment against. Unless you are aware of some assets, e.g. a warehouse, I'd be tempted to cut your losses.

Check your paperwork to see if you got a personal guarantee signed by the directors - worth checking.

allBlighty

Lover_of_Lycra said:

If you issue a Section 8 using Ground 8 for the arrears you can have the arrears dealt with at the same time as the possession order.  Has the letting agent been in contact with the tenant, if not why not?

We can only give a notice to quit as it's not the usual AST rather a company (commercial) lease.
The letting agent contacts the carpentry company to nag for the payments but I don't think much else. The letting agent did give the company the notice to quit for us though.

Crashy_Time

They are probably just taking their three month rent holiday, the government advice at the start of this deliberately led people to the conclusion that they would be financially looked after (although the schemes that have probably paid out a fraction of the money promised are now being scaled back) Unlikely that a carpentry business is making any money just now.

allBlighty

Daveym79 said:

Sounds like your letting agent is letting you down as I would assume they take a small percentage of monthly rent and so it would be in there best interest to chase rental arrears. I would assume they send the money to you rather than it come direct from this carpentry company, so how do you know its not actually the letting agent that is slow with rental payments and have now ceased paying rent rather than the business. Does this rental agent have multiple offices across the country? Something doesn't quite add up here. 

Yeah, it's a big letting agent with offices in many cities/towns.
Also I'm pretty sure that the letting agent has some sort of insurance to cover the loss of commission for them.

allBlighty

princeofpounds said:

If the company is listed on Companies House it exists, at least in a legal sense.

There is no rule that companies must have an online presence. Many don't, actually, because many companies are set up as legal structures, not necessarily to interact with customers. Don't think about a company as a shop or a factor or an office; it's just a legal entity.

There may be something dodgy about them, but probably not - my guess is that this is a one-man band (or near enough) who works as a sub-contractor and has a Ltd company to conduct his business through. He probably would find it harder to get rentals through a standard AST route as his apparent personal income is not that high, so chooses to rent via his business.

Hopefully it is a genuine company, I did recently get an email from a neighbor saying that many men lived in the house (more than one per room) on and off with many coming and goings. I guess these men may work for the company.

We given a notice to quit, so I guess they will leave soon enough. I'm more worried about reclaiming the lost rent though. I'll need to work out first if a lawyer is worth it. 

allBlighty

Crashy_Time said:

allBlighty said:

Whoops, guess I explained that rather poorly.
I'll start again.

We own a house in Swindon which we purchased back in 2016.
A letting agent found someone to let out the house to. The house is let out via a company lease not the regular assured shorthold tenancy.

The company is a carpentry business. 
Interestingly enough, the company (carpentry guys) don't have any sort of online presence. I'm sure it would be very difficult to get much business without any sort of online presence these days.
This has made me think that perhaps the carpentry company is not genuine.

So the main issue, which I'll word(hopefully) better is as follows.
The carpentry company have not been paying since the start of the year. Despite much attempt from the letting agent to get the carpentry company to pay the rent arrears, nothing has happened. 
The carpentry company often would pay the rent one month late. Not really relevant but just thought it would be good to add.

As we rent a house in Bath, we are starting to feel the financial pinch. Because of this we plan to move to Swindon and live in the house (where the carpentry company is).

We have given a notice to quit to them as we can no longer afford this.  
After they leave, how can we get back the rental arrears.


Hopefully this makes more sense 

I hear the drugs trade has been quite disrupted lately....only kidding...kind of........Why does a carpentry company without an online presence and who you think can`t get much work need to rent property in the place where they are based? I could understand if you were renting out a shed but companies that supply accommodation to employees/clients are usually large national/multinational companies who would definitely have a shiny website....Am I totally misunderstanding what you posted?

I think the house might be sub let (or maybe not officially) to the carpentry company workers, which makes me think they are foreign workers.

Comms69

allBlighty said:

princeofpounds said:

If the company is listed on Companies House it exists, at least in a legal sense.

There is no rule that companies must have an online presence. Many don't, actually, because many companies are set up as legal structures, not necessarily to interact with customers. Don't think about a company as a shop or a factor or an office; it's just a legal entity.

There may be something dodgy about them, but probably not - my guess is that this is a one-man band (or near enough) who works as a sub-contractor and has a Ltd company to conduct his business through. He probably would find it harder to get rentals through a standard AST route as his apparent personal income is not that high, so chooses to rent via his business.

Hopefully it is a genuine company, I did recently get an email from a neighbor saying that many men lived in the house (more than one per room) on and off with many coming and goings. I guess these men may work for the company.

We given a notice to quit, so I guess they will leave soon enough. I'm more worried about reclaiming the lost rent though. I'll need to work out first if a lawyer is worth it. 

When you let the building to them - what is the name that appears in the contract??