Garage renter hasn't paid for 12 months, what can we do?

AndrewDE

We have a few garages on a property for which the residents share the freehold. These are rented out to third parties. One of our long term renters said that a family member was going to be taking over the payments and gave me details which proved insufficient to set up new payments or send out a new contract. That was over a year ago and we've not received any payments since. I haven't seen anyone using the garage in that time (it used to be fairly frequent) but I believe their stuff is still in there.

With the usual caveats of seeking legal advice first - just drawing on your own experiences - what can we do? I would like to write and give notice that we are reclaiming the garage and seeking back payments. Provided we give them a reasonable amount of time to do this, is this OK? And meanwhile, would we be within our rights to get the locks changed as a safeguard against  them clearing the garage out and disappearing.

I should add that, in practice, it is an amount of money that would probably cost more in legal fees to reclaim so I personally would consider the back payments a bonus at this point (obviously I won't put that in the letter!!).

AdrianC

AndrewDE said:

One of our long term renters said that a family member was going to be taking over the payments and gave me details which proved insufficient to set up new payments or send out a new contract. That was over a year ago and we've not received any payments since.

I'm not sure what you mean by this... Can you clarify?

I presume you aren't setting up DDs, so surely it would simply be a case of you giving the occupier your bank details for payment? Or do you mean that you don't actually have any usable contact details at all for them?

What does the contract say?
It's not a residential tenancy, it's a commercial occupation - probably under licence - so the usual residential tenancy Ts & Cs and restrictions don't apply.

Whenever I've had lockups (both council and private), any communication from landlord to tenant is backed up with a copy taped to the garage door. That's deemed to be adequately served, because there's a presumption that the space is periodically visited and checked by the occupier.

Comms69

What's the nature of the lease?

You risk criminal offences by changing the locks - potentially.
In addition if you do that you also risk becoming responsible for the entire contents of the garage - including it's ongoing safe storage

davidmcn

You say it's a "long term renter", but what's the term of the lease? i.e. how quickly could either party terminate it if there weren't a breach?

princeofpounds

Commercial leases are different to what we normally advise on here on this board. That's not to say that we don't have an opinion or suggestions but just to make you aware.

Commercial tenancies run very much more according to the letter of the contract than residential tenancies do. That may be to your advantage, if you have a well-drafted contract.

Normally there are two ways to regain possession of the garage:
1) court order
2) peaceable re-entry (if allowed under your contract).

What does it say about non-payment of rent and (hopefully) the forfeiture of the lease? Normally, the landlord will reserve the right to take possession if a rental payment is missed. If so, option 2) may be the easiest approach. But it is not without risks. Sometimes tenants can apply to a court for 'relief from forfeiture', which gives them possession back and allows them to claim any losses as a result of your action. That's probably unlikely in your situation, but you need to look into that.

But these are not normal times. There are Covid protections that may apply and prevent you from pursuing eviction for now. These should have expired at the end of last month but you need to check if they were extended.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-protection-for-businesses-with-ban-on-evictions-for-commercial-tenants-who-miss-rent-payments

You cannot just seize their goods or hold them hostage. If you are interested in gaining repayment rather than possession, then there is another route you can investigate that may allow you to do this, called CRAR (an update of the old 'distress rent' process). But you cannot do both. I won't go into the details but there are dozens of bailiff website that explain that process. Or, if you go the court route, you can of course apply for a court order for arrears. 

I'm wondering a bit exactly what the status of the tenancy is right now. Your original tenant is probably still the tenant, given that the new tenant probably never formed a contract with you. Or perhaps the original tenant may be counted has having given notice, so the tenancy is already ended but you are left in 'bailment' of their goods. All that depends on the detail of the communication you have been having.

elsien

What happened when you went back to the long term renter and explained that the family member's details were insufficient? 

AndrewDE

elsien said:

What happened when you went back to the long term renter and explained that the family member's details were insufficient? 

I've had no response from either of them until the other day (despite multiple attempts to contact them) - from the original renter saying, in effect, 'I thought that was all sorted?'

AndrewDE

AdrianC said:

AndrewDE said:

One of our long term renters said that a family member was going to be taking over the payments and gave me details which proved insufficient to set up new payments or send out a new contract. That was over a year ago and we've not received any payments since.

I'm not sure what you mean by this... Can you clarify?

I presume you aren't setting up DDs, so surely it would simply be a case of you giving the occupier your bank details for payment? Or do you mean that you don't actually have any usable contact details at all for them?

What does the contract say?
It's not a residential tenancy, it's a commercial occupation - probably under licence - so the usual residential tenancy Ts & Cs and restrictions don't apply.

Whenever I've had lockups (both council and private), any communication from landlord to tenant is backed up with a copy taped to the garage door. That's deemed to be adequately served, because there's a presumption that the space is periodically visited and checked by the occupier.

The new occupier gave us their bank details, believing we'd set up the rent. I contacted them saying they would need to set up a standing order and to give me an address or email to send out a contract. I never heard back from them. I've never had any response from the new renter.

AndrewDE

davidmcn said:

You say it's a "long term renter", but what's the term of the lease? i.e. how quickly could either party terminate it if there weren't a breach?

In the usual run of things, either party would have to give three month's notice to end the contract

elsien

AndrewDE said:

elsien said:

What happened when you went back to the long term renter and explained that the family member's details were insufficient? 

I've had no response from either of them until the other day (despite multiple attempts to contact them) - from the original renter saying, in effect, 'I thought that was all sorted?'

But it's their belongings that are still in there, not the new person with the insufficient bank details?

davidmcn

AndrewDE said:

davidmcn said:

You say it's a "long term renter", but what's the term of the lease? i.e. how quickly could either party terminate it if there weren't a breach?

In the usual run of things, either party would have to give three month's notice to end the contract

In which case you might be safer just to give that notice rather than argue about who ought to be paying the arrears.

Though it's not very clear from what you say whether you've actually agreed to an assignment of the lease (or the grant of a new one) to the supposed new tenant.