Landlord and tenant act commercial property

[EBeautyCoral]

Hi, I am currently renting a commercial property. We have been asked to vacate the premises at the end of our one-year lease, which was meant to roll on a monthly basis. I recently discovered that I wasn’t served with a notice to contract out of the 1954 Act, section 24/28. What are my rights in this situation? The lease mentions contracting out, but it’s not explained that there is no security of tenure.

[atticus]

You say that you have been "asked" to vacate. How?

When you took on the lease were the provisions of section 38A Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 complied with? https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga...56/section/38A

[EBeautyCoral]

Thanks for the response.

Just to clarify, we were told via email that we would have to leave, and then we got a formal written notice.

As for section 38A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, I’m not sure if they followed it because we weren’t told about it before signing the lease. Also, we didn’t get any notice explaining that the lease was being contracted out or what that meant.

It wasn’t clear to us what the implications were. It just states that it’s being excluded.

Here’s what happened:
The landlords initially said their solicitors would draw up a license to underlet so we could hire staff or rent a chair. But when we asked for a longer lease, they withdrew that offer and said they wouldn’t renew our lease in August, asking us to leave.

Looking at the lease, it mentions contracting out of the 1954 Act, but it doesn’t explain what that means or the lack of security of tenure.

Can you advise on what we can do next?

[atticus]

My advice is to consult a solicitor. You will need to provide all documents.

Consideration could be given to your serving a request for a new tenancy under s26 of the L&T Act 1954.

[EBeautyCoral]

Thanks for the advice.

If proper procedures were not followed in contracting out of sections 24/28 of the 1954 Landlord and Tenant Act, do we still have rights for security of tenure?

[atticus]

That is my understanding. It is why I have raised the possibility of a s26 request.