Commercial Landlord looking to increase rent and back date 4 years. Any advice

Shoza said:
Sounds pretty unreasonable to me (residential property lawyer) so I would be considering the rent clauses in the lease carefully.

Have a read of UCTA 1977 as well
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Hmm I don’t wish to snub your post but I suggest that the OP leaves it to his professional advisors to suggest a course of action based on the specific content of the lease and more substantiated facts, rather than pointing OP towards specific legislation which may or may not be helpful - it may lead to academic pondering and perhaps the OP misunderstanding his position, rather than achieving a resolution.

If I was the landlord, I would just counter any reference to UCTA by saying the lease wasn’t on standard terms (s.3) and, in any case, obligations regarding the payment of rent are expressly excluded from the provisions of UCTA as they are provisions that are integral to fixing the interest in land (sch1. Section 1(b)). At least, that’s the obvious counter-arguments. The application of UCTA would be massively dependent on the initial conclusion of the lease, with huge uncertainty re: the above exemption. So it’s not a ‘silver bullet’ for the OP, even if we found out that it was a lease agreed on standard terms.

Just wanted to mention that before OP wades in smugly waving “but UCTA!” in the landlord’s face :p

Normally, unless it’s completely black and white, it’s better to just reach pragmatic commercially focussed agreements and document them (using professional advice to understand the likely outcome of the dispute) rather than getting bogged down in winning legal arguments / disagreements.
 
Nitefly said:
Normally, unless it’s completely black and white, it’s better to just reach pragmatic commercially focussed agreements and document them (using professional advice to understand the likely outcome of the dispute) rather than getting bogged down in winning legal arguments / disagreements.
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I wish my dad understand this !!! Instead of forums, he is taking advice from his accountant for legal advice! Constantly going "but the accountant says"...

Arghhhhhhh!
 
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This is what great legal advice looks like folks.
I am so hot for you right now.

e: timing! For clarity, Raymond is so hot right now, as is Nitefly. Just hot people sharing their words.

I love you too.
 
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dLockers said:
200iq
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I was only half joking. Obviously it depends on what the contract says, but I'd argue that if the rent review can be backdated, so can the break clause, and so give notice effective of the date of the review, and leave immediately. I'm not a lawyer though, so probably better to consult one than listen to my ramblings on how to **** with the landlord :p
 
Seems a stupid rule, as above it makes no sense. My wife has a property that is up for review on 01/05/2026 and this has the same clause in there although it does state how the review will be calculated and is linked to RPI.

That said, if the landlord hasn't confirmed the new fugures by the week before the break window expires then he's getting notice.
 
Rent reviews and backdated rents

Whilst most commercial leases expressly state rent review dates, these are often a starting point from the reviewed rent can commence. Most leases are prepared on the basis that allow the parties to commence the rent review in an agreed period to the review date and state that if they have not agreed the reviewed rent by the set review date, the same rent will continue to be payable. The leases generally then state that review can then be undertaken at any point in the future and, once the review has taken place, the landlord will be entitled to backdate the increased rent to the review date and charge interest.

For example, a lease could have an annual rent of £12,000 and state that the rent review date was to be 1 January 2015. The 1 January 2015 could come and go and the rent review may not be implemented at that point, which would mean the rent of £15,000 would continue to be payable. The landlord then may decide on 1 July 2018 that they would like to implement the rent review that should have taken place in 2015 and the review resulted in an increase of rent to £15,000. The landlord would then be entitled to recover the difference of the rent backdated to 1 January 2015 (which would equate to £250 per month and would be for a total of 42 months, giving a rental arrears of £10,500 plus interest). Such a demand could be catastrophic for a tenant. Therefore, from a tenant’s perspective, it is essential that the lease includes an ability for the tenant, as well as the landlord, to also ask for the rent to be reviewed. It may seem counterintuitive for a tenant to want the rent to be reviewed, but by doing so it can ensure that the landlord doesn’t hold off on implementing the review and then seek to make a huge backdated rent claim.
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Explains why so many businesses seem to go under as soon as rent is increased if this is the sort of thing that can be legally done.
 
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