A commercial rent review clause should set out a mechanic for the rent review and deal with eventualities etc.
Backdated rent increases are typically OK, but this is just the result of the parties taking some time for the appropriate figure to be determined. Interest should only be payable from the date the new rent is actually determined. Nobody could expect to claim interest on payments that haven’t been demanded.
It’s usual for the review to be passable to a surveyor for determination in the absence of agreement.
^Rent reviews, particularly ‘assumptions and disregards’ for determining the new rent, are therefore some of the most important terms in a commercial lease - anyone involved in a leasing exercise, beware!
A unilateral, no cap ‘landlord discretional’ rent review is about as unreasonable and onerous as it sounds. It’s either not that, or the lease wasn’t given proper input by solicitors.
As for the outcome, it really depends on the detail of what the lease says, but it seems unlikely that a landlord would be able to enforce an increase that can be shown to be grossly beyond market rate increases if the landlord sat on his hands for the purposes of making your break options lapse and it’s clear that no person would agree to these increases. This needs to be weighed up against how ridiculous the increase is and how the lease is drafted. If the increase is truly bringing the rent up to reasonable market rates, then it might not be worth going into a long dispute over it.
OP your first steps are to find out the detail of what the lease says and figure out what the market rent of the lease actually is. Then, seek professional advice.
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