Commercial tenant with no lease for 4 years 6 months

Hi all,

I operate a small one man business via a limited company. In 2005 my Limited Company rented an office from ABC. ABC had a 25 year lease with the building owner XYZ and had some excess offices which they rented out.

In June 2009 ABC went into liquidation and XYZ took the building back over. Back then it was impossible to find large commercial tenants so XYZ were happy to keep the tenants in the excess offices paying them rent. We quickly agreed a reduced monthly rent with XYZ (ABC were providing shared services which XYZ couldn't commit to) and I (or more correctly my Limited Company) has remained in the office ever since paying the agreed monthly rent to XYZ on receipt of their invoice etc.

Shortly after paying the first months rent to XYZ in July 2005 they submitted an "Office Sharing Licence" agreement which they proposed I sign. It was for a 12 month period with an option to renew for another period on re-negotiated terms and made very clear in different clauses that no relationship of Landlord and Tenant exists, it's only a licence to use the property as an office etc and that all rights conferred on the Licensee shall be rights in personam and shall not be rights in rem etc etc.

I wasn't happy with the proposed document so didn't sign it and they never followed up.

A couple of years ago XYZ got a large corporate tenant into the building. they took over all the building excluding the two remaining offices rented by my company and one other small business who have also been here since 2005 and have the same circumstances I do which means the incoming corporate tenant occupied 90% of the building. That was great as the new company provided shared services to us etc and we co-existed quite happily.

That corporate tenant has now left and with the more buoyant property market I'm expecting XYZ to ask me to vacate so they can have vacant possession in order to market the property more easily to prospective corporate tenants and/or sell the building to take advantage of rising prices locally.

Given the above do I have any option but to accede to their request? I don't want to move as the location is very convenient for me, alternative equivalent office space is twice as expensive and the cost of moving and re-doing stationery, business cards etc would also be expensive and time consuming.

Does the fact we don't have a binding lease/rental/licence agreement make any difference? Does my continuous occupation for almost 9 years strengthen my position? Do I have any options other than packing my bags when the (anticipated) 30 days notice to terminate arrives?

Thanks for your input.

Ben