When Can a Landlord Evict a Tenant in the UK?

As a commercial landlord in the UK, you may be in a situation where you want to evict a tenant from your commercial premises. As a result, you will take back possession of your property. You may do this, for example, due to rent arrears. However, it is essential that you understand your legal obligations when evicting a tenant, as well as the process of how to carry out an eviction. If you evict a commercial tenant without a valid reason or the correct procedure, eviction may be illegal, and it could be a criminal offence. This article will explain when you can evict your commercial tenant from your commercial property and briefly outline the procedure. 

What is a Commercial Lease? 

A commercial lease is a contract between you and your tenant. It specifies that your tenant can use the property for a particular business purpose and for a specific period. In turn, they will pay you rent.

As a landlord, whether or not you and how you evict your tenant from your property can depend on the type of commercial lease agreement you have. Many lease agreements are protected leases and have security of tenure. Security of tenure protects your tenants from eviction, except where particular circumstances mean you can evict them.

If your lease agreement is not protected, it will have a clause that excludes this. The clause must be in writing in the lease agreement. Likewise, both you and the commercial tenant must sign the agreement. This position also applies to future leases with the same tenants. 

Reason to Evict 

If you have a protected lease over your commercial property, there are only a few circumstances where you can evict your commercial tenant. For example, you may be able to evict your tenant if they:

• do not pay their rent;
• fail to carry out repairs;
• wish to demolish your property;
• plan to reconstruct the property; or
• substantially breach the lease, such as through criminal behaviour. 

Rent is the most common reason to evict a tenant. However, you should take care where you wish to evict your tenant when they fail to pay the rent.

Evicting your tenant

How you evict your tenant may depend on the following circumstances.

Can I Evict a Tenant Through Forfeiture?

You may evict your tenant through forfeiture where your tenant breaches a commercial lease term. You must have a valid legal reason to do so, and the process takes place through peaceable re-entry or application to the court for possession.

If you wish to evict your tenants for rent, you may not need to give notice of forfeiture of the lease and enter the property without notice. However, this is a technical area, and you should always seek legal advice beforehand. 

What is a 146 Notice?

Before you can evict your tenant and gain possession of the property where they breach a lease term other than nonpayment of rent, you should serve a 146 notice. You should also give this to other relevant parties, such as your mortgage provider and subtenants. 

A section 146 notice will set out:

• what the breach is; and
• what you may require the tenant to do, such as pay compensation.

If the breach concerns repairs, your tenant should inform you no more than 28 days after receiving your 146 notice if they wish to claim statutory protection. If they do, you will need permission from the court before you take any other action concerning eviction. 

Section 25 Notice

If your commercial tenant has done something which gives you a reason not to want to continue with a protected lease, you have to serve a Section 25 Notice. The notice must state:

• that you do not wish to grant your commercial tenant a new tenancy once their lease term comes to an end;
• your reason for this which must be a valid one; and
• how long your tenant has before they need to vacate your property – typically, at least 6 months and no longer than 12 months’ notice.

Key Takeaways

If you wish to evict your commercial tenant, you must have a valid reason to do so. Where the tenancy is a protected lease, there are limited reasons you can evict your tenant. If you have a legal basis to evict your tenant, such as if they fail to pay rent, you may do so through forfeiture. However, if your tenant breaches another part of the lease, you will need to give them a 146 notice. If your lease is a protected lease and you do not wish it to renew at the end of the lease term, you must serve a Section 25 Notice on your tenant where you have legal reason to do so.

If you need help understanding when you can evict a tenant in the UK, 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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