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Hi everyone and Merry Christmas to you all AND hopefully a better 2021 to us all
*Down to business*
BIT OF HISTORY
My Wife has an indoor market stall selling Eco-Friendly products, it's been a hard 1st year for us with not only starting trading in August 2019 but also with the pandemic and 2 lockdowns we've had to endure.
We've been proactive throughout both lockdowns in the hope that we survive all this by doing deliveries during the lockdowns (as we sell cleaning and sanitizing products) and using the £10k government grant to build a storage shed and startup an e-commerce website.
Now! down to our issue we have..
During the first lockdown the Council (our landlord) said we will not be charged for the 3 months of lockdown which we thought was reasonable as the market was closed to the public over that period.
However, after we came back from the second lockdown we all had an invoice asking for the full month's lease. Most of the stallholders I spoke to said they are refusing to pay it because the Council prevented us from trading which is a fair comment and one I also agree with.
This week we got a final reminder off the Council asking for half the original amount, I asked other stallholders if they had received their final reminder, about half said they had and out of those that said they'd received the reminder half again said there's was for the full amount and the other half said it had been reduced??
We've checked in our lease agreement and it does say that "During any period (maximum: three years) when damage to the building, or any means of access to it. prevents all or part of the property being put to it's accustomed use, the basic rent is canceled or reduced as appropriate." now I might be wrong here but that would suggest to me that closing the market because of a lockdown should apply here.
Some of the stallholders have paid it because they said they can't afford to lose their business fighting the Council over one month's rent and our stallholders committee which consists of 4 people have been quiet and not helping at all, we have not paid the invoice for this month yet but my wife is giving me a bit of grief over this and wants me to pay.
I've uploaded part of the Tenancy agreement where it states rent suspension, the November invoice and the final reminder. I've removed names and other relevant details from the documents but have left the last three digits of the invoice number to tie in both invoice and reminder.
All advice is welcome please.
*Down to business*
BIT OF HISTORY
My Wife has an indoor market stall selling Eco-Friendly products, it's been a hard 1st year for us with not only starting trading in August 2019 but also with the pandemic and 2 lockdowns we've had to endure.
We've been proactive throughout both lockdowns in the hope that we survive all this by doing deliveries during the lockdowns (as we sell cleaning and sanitizing products) and using the £10k government grant to build a storage shed and startup an e-commerce website.
Now! down to our issue we have..
During the first lockdown the Council (our landlord) said we will not be charged for the 3 months of lockdown which we thought was reasonable as the market was closed to the public over that period.
However, after we came back from the second lockdown we all had an invoice asking for the full month's lease. Most of the stallholders I spoke to said they are refusing to pay it because the Council prevented us from trading which is a fair comment and one I also agree with.
This week we got a final reminder off the Council asking for half the original amount, I asked other stallholders if they had received their final reminder, about half said they had and out of those that said they'd received the reminder half again said there's was for the full amount and the other half said it had been reduced??
We've checked in our lease agreement and it does say that "During any period (maximum: three years) when damage to the building, or any means of access to it. prevents all or part of the property being put to it's accustomed use, the basic rent is canceled or reduced as appropriate." now I might be wrong here but that would suggest to me that closing the market because of a lockdown should apply here.
Some of the stallholders have paid it because they said they can't afford to lose their business fighting the Council over one month's rent and our stallholders committee which consists of 4 people have been quiet and not helping at all, we have not paid the invoice for this month yet but my wife is giving me a bit of grief over this and wants me to pay.
I've uploaded part of the Tenancy agreement where it states rent suspension, the November invoice and the final reminder. I've removed names and other relevant details from the documents but have left the last three digits of the invoice number to tie in both invoice and reminder.
All advice is welcome please.
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