If you’re looking for a solicitor to aid in forfeiting a commercial lease, we can help.
When lease violations occur, decisive action is critical. We provide expert guidance through the complex process of commercial lease forfeiture, ensuring legal compliance while protecting your property and business interests.
FAQs
Forfeiture is a landlord’s legal right to prematurely end a commercial lease, as a result of a tenant breaching a covenant in the contract.
This right to forfeit can be found in the tenancy agreement, allowing the landlord to forfeit the lease if they feel the contract has been breached. However, the landlord must also give the tenant reasonable time to remedy the situation, thus giving them a chance to avoid forfeiture of the lease.
Matters that can lead to forfeiture include non-payment of rent and services, or breaches in covenants of the agreement (i.e. damages to the property.)
Due to the Coronavirus Act 2020, forfeiture of commercial leases for non-payment of rent may not be enforced by action or otherwise. This act is due to expire on the 25th of March 2022.
To forfeit a lease, the landlord will have to identify a tenant’s breach of the contract. The landlord must raise this issue quickly, otherwise they may waive their right to forfeiture.
If the issue remains unresolved, the landlord must serve the tenant a section 146 notice, which comes from the Law Property Act of 1925. This notice must specify:
If the tenant decides not to remedy the issue within the given time, the landlord must take further action through peaceful re-entry or court proceedings.
Importantly, peaceful re-entry is only an option if the specific breach is non-payment of rent. Yet, if somebody is currently inside or living on the property, the landlord must go through the County Court instead.
The length of time needed to forfeit a lease depends on several things. For example, what was the amount of time given to the tenant to fix the breaches? How complex is the issue? Is the tenant contesting the forfeiture?
Our solicitors can solve these issues correctly and efficiently, therefore saving time in the long run. To speak to one of our forfeiture and commercial lease solicitors, please call us on 020 3007 5500.
Simply put – no. Once a landlord has committed to forfeiting the lease, it cannot be undone. Therefore, landlords must be certain that forfeiture is the option they wish to pursue.
However, a tenant can apply for relief from forfeiture against the claim of the landlord. If approved, the court can delay or even overturn the forfeit of the lease.
As all scenarios differ in size, the costs of court proceedings depend on the severity of the dispute. Therefore, our solicitors will always require an initial consultation first.
In this initial consultation, our solicitors guarantee:
To contact one of our forfeiture and commercial lease solicitors, please call us on 020 3007 5500.
Call, email or provide us with a few details of your matter, and we’ll help you arrange an initial consultation. You’ll get:
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