What Can I Do if My Landlord Breaches My Lease in the UK?

Your commercial premises is essential as it is where you run your business. Therefore, you will want to ensure that you respect your commercial property, which means honouring your lease terms. Your landlord also has legal obligations in the lease agreement, which they must carry out. If they fail to do so correctly, it may influence your enjoyment of your commercial premises. It could affect the success of your business or cause problems for your staff, customers and suppliers. As a commercial tenant, you can take action if your landlord breaches your lease obligations. This article explores your options. 

Commercial Lease Agreement 

The details of your lease for your business are in your commercial lease agreement with your landlord. This contract grants you sole occupation of the property. You pay rental payments, and you and your landlord have rights and obligations.

A Breach

A commercial landlord breaches a lease agreement if they fail to honour their commitments. Although a landlord tends to have fewer obligations than the tenant in a commercial lease, they have significant ones, including:

• building maintenance;
• acquiring building insurance;
• providing specific services; and
• not interfering with your occupancy rights.

However, there are times when commercial landlords fail to honour their lease agreement obligations. There are a variety of ways they might do this, but some common situations include:

• failing to maintain or repair the property adequately;
• not sorting out business insurance for the building or providing other services; 
• not allowing you to access the property;
• trying to evict you without following the specified procedures; or
• using or accessing the property while occupied and without consent.

Responding to a Breach

If your landlord breaches your lease agreement, there are several actions you can take. We explain these in more detail below.

Write to Your Landlord.

When your landlord has breached the lease, the first action is to write to them. You should point out that there is a breach of the contract and what it is. This written notice may assist you later if you take your landlord to court.

Hopefully, writing to your landlord will encourage them to sort out the issue with you, resulting in an amicable agreement. In addition, when writing to your landlord, you can put them on notice regarding what you intend to do. For example, you may specify how you plan to take court action if they ignore your letter, which may spur them to rectify the breach.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Alternative dispute resolution is encouraged in various disputes, and you should explore this option before proceeding to court action. Accordingly, courts will look unfavourably upon a person who refuses this, which could affect any costs and damages they might pay. 

Court Action

Court proceedings or litigation are a last resort when your landlord breaches your commercial lease agreement. You should first try other attempts to resolve the breach first. Court proceedings can be:

• lengthy;
• time-consuming; and 
• expensive.

If previous options have been unsuccessful, you may be able to help yourself regarding the breach. This involves you doing the work and deducting the expense from the rent money you are due to pay your landlord. However, you should be cautious about this as:

• your lease agreement may forbid it; and
• where it allows it, the work may be deemed not up to standard by the landlord.

If you proceed with litigation, a court can decide upon various remedies. We explore these below.

Court Declaration

If you are unsure what you or your landlord can do concerning the breach, you can ask a court to make a declaration. The court declares your options, which should ensure your landlord takes action. However, if not, the court can make a declaration in conjunction with specific performance or damages.

Specific Performance

Specific performance is where the court asks your landlord to rectify any breach, such as by conducting repairs. The court will generally take this option where they believe damages will not adequately remedy the breach. 

Specific performance is rare for the court but can be successful where it is clear that your landlord is in breach and there is a clear impact on you as a tenant. Furthermore, you will need to provide evidence that the repairs are urgent.

Damages 

There is a possibility of a court awarding financial damages if your landlord has breached the lease. This compensates you for any loss as a result of the damage. This remedy is appropriate where you already had to incur costs due to the breach, such as where:

• you have done work regarding the breach yourself;
• there is damage to the property; or
• there has been a loss to your business.

You need to prove that the loss resulted from your landlord’s failure to act, so you will need to provide evidence. There is no cap to your claim for damages, and these can be offset against your rental payments.

Mandatory Injunction

The court sometimes gives an interim injunction with specific performance. This typically orders your landlord to do something which may not explicitly be in the lease agreement.

Key Takeaways

If your landlord breaches your commercial lease agreement for your business premises, there are actions you can take. You must first try to resolve the issue with your landlord by communicating with them. If they fail to take action, you should try alternative dispute resolution. Finally, if your landlord fails to rectify the breach, you can bring legal proceedings against them. 

If you need help understanding your options if your landlord breaches your commercial lease, our experienced leasing lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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