Can anyone give me advice please ?

AI_Cortana

I have recently become unemployed after 32 years in the same job.
I was employed for the first 26 years by the business owner , who then approached me 6 years ago and asked me to lease the business from him , which i did.
Unfortunately due to the events of the pandemic i am no longer able to continue and a new owner has came in and took over.
Would i be entitled to any kind of redundancy payment ?.
Thank you in advance for any replies.

k3lvc

Unlikely but definitely more information needed.

Who currently pays you ? Assuming you're 'leasing the business' from him then presumably you're self-employed/you've set up a company

I'd have thought the time for this question was 6yrs ago before you moved from an employed position but recognise this won't be helpful for you now

AI_Cortana

k3lvc said:

Unlikely but definitely more information needed.

Who currently pays you ? Assuming you're 'leasing the business' from him then presumably you're self-employed/you've set up a company

I'd have thought the time for this question was 6yrs ago before you moved from an employed position but recognise this won't be helpful for you now

Thanks , you are right , i should have addressed this 6yrs ago, just never thought at the time, when i moved from employed to self employed.

Undervalued

AI_Cortana said:

k3lvc said:

Unlikely but definitely more information needed.

Who currently pays you ? Assuming you're 'leasing the business' from him then presumably you're self-employed/you've set up a company

I'd have thought the time for this question was 6yrs ago before you moved from an employed position but recognise this won't be helpful for you now

Thanks , you are right , i should have addressed this 6yrs ago, just never thought at the time, when i moved from employed to self employed.

Given the amount of money involved it may be worth taking some legal advice. 

Have you been working it the way that would normally be expected of an employee or were you genuinely your own boss as a one man business?

If the former applies then it can sometimes be successfully argued that the "self employment" was a sham / tax dodge etc and that you were actually an employee. If so then you may be entitled to redundancy money etc.

AI_Cortana

Thank you for the reply.
After working in the business for 26 years as an employee myself ,the owner decided he wanted out and put it up for sale.
He asked myself and the only other employee to take it on ,which we did , forming a partnership.
So from that time on i was genuinely self employed.
Just one further question in case someone else finds themselves in a similar situation.
Would i have been entitled to any sort of payment when i left my employer at the time, or would me taking over the business have
ruled that out.
Thanks.

lincroft1710

If you were genuinely self employed and the previous employer relinquished all interest in the business, then I cannot see that you would have been entitled to any payment from him.

getmore4less

What are the terms of the lease?

new owners should not be changing that.

There may be ongoing liabilities.

Manxman_in_exile

AI_Cortana said:

...He asked myself and the only other employee to take it on ,which we did , forming a partnership...

So is your partner in the same boat, or are they still involved in the business?