County Court Claim from Commercial Landlord

[Estudiantes]

Until recently my wife was renting a small lock up shop, the lease was up and due to health problems it was a good time to just hand the keys back.

She had always dealt with the agents and not the landlord directly, he owns a LOT of property.

She has now received a court claim from the landlord claiming for a quarters rent payment in March 2011 and another from March 2012. Plus interest at 8%

The agents have been asking about these alleged missed payments for a while now but they only "came to light" after an internal review.

The agents have for the past 9 years been pretty useless for want of a better way of putting it. For example despite a clause in the lease prohibiting a similar business opening up on the parade of shops they let one open right next door. There excuse was they forgot about the clause.

I have lots of questions hope this is the right place to ask them ?

[Estudiantes]

Re: County Court Claim from Commercial Landlord

Just checked the interest they are claiming and they have totaled it up wrong. This makes the overall total they are claiming incorrect.

[Estudiantes]

Re: County Court Claim from Commercial Landlord

Also no LBA or any attempt by the landlord to contact my wife about if she even owed the rent.

[teaboy2]

Re: County Court Claim from Commercial Landlord

Was the rent for the periods they are claiming actually paid by your wife?

As per their breach of the clause regarding opening up another shop, well you have a counter claim for breach of contract and loss of sales as a result of that other shop being a direct competitor. You would have to check your accounts to see how your wifes sales declined in the months after the other shop opened up, to get an estimated amount on lost sales. When i say sales i mean gross profit, and total number of sales. You will need to produce the accounts as evidence to back up your claim for the impact their breach of contract had on your wifes sales and profit.