Help! Landlord Theft

kylith

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

We rent a small shop in a larger complex. Our landlord terminated our contract and we're to be out by the end of June. We're sad to go, but such is life.

When the weekend staff went in this morning they found that the locks had been changed on our shop and all our stock had been removed. We were a little behind on rent, but the boss had made an arrangement with their accountant for paying it off. They have taken our stock 'in lieu of rent'.

As far as I know what they have done is illegal, and proper eviction procedures should have been followed.

Does anyone have experience of this, or can anyone point me to where I can get the relevant information, my googling has only brought up residential tenant laws.

sirreally

You need legal advice - just talk to a solicitor. Bear in mind that most solicitors will give you a free initial consultation these days, so you should be able to establish exactly where you stand before you are asked to consider paying any fees. I know my solicitor would certainly talk to you for free - pm me for details if you like.

kylith

Just been on to boss and he said he'll get on to his solicitor, thanks.

fl4pj4ck

what he's done is completely illegal, he won't get away with this

kilburn

saw this happen in limerick last year, stupid business from a prat landlord with no cop on.

kylith

It turns out that we had had rent waived until we move out as part of a settlement for receiving an illegal notice to quite the premises last year, so their arguement that it's because we were behind on rent is nonsense. It's going to court next week.

Thanks for all the advice.

fl4pj4ck

please keep us posted

maxer68

Legally, whilst you ahve a lease in place and with no 7 day notice to vacate the premises for non payment of rent, you "own" the premises.

You can, totally legally, force entry even if this means breaking a window, forcing locks etc and the landlord would be responsible for this.

Let the landlord know you are doing this later today unless he gives you immediate access.

If anyone thinks that this has been done due to you not complying with lease terms and iof you thinks this can have an adverse affect on your business, you have a case for defamation against the landlord - you certanly should not pay him any balance until this is completely finalised to your staisfaction.

kylith

Our company has now been forced to cease trading, leaving us with about 2000 customers who have had contracts with us until the end of June. We have, luckily, been able to transfer these to other businesses, similar to ours, in the area. Unfortunately some of our clients don't want to move and are demanding their money back.

Our manager has been subjected to various things designed to humiliate her, staff records and client records have also 'gone missing' since the larger centre took our property on Friday last, our stock has still not been returned to us and the centre is also accusing us of fraud and tax evasion. All of this is now in the hands of solicitors.

Certain members of our staff who had been given jobs by the centre, to start after we were due to leave on the 30th, have now had these offers recinded, and they are also taking legal action against the centre.

Marguerite Tonery

kylith wrote: »

Our company has now been forced to cease trading, leaving us with about 2000 customers who have had contracts with us until the end of June. We have, luckily, been able to transfer these to other businesses, similar to ours, in the area. Unfortunately some of our clients don't want to move and are demanding their money back.

Our manager has been subjected to various things designed to humiliate her, staff records and client records have also 'gone missing' since the larger centre took our property on Friday last, our stock has still not been returned to us and the centre is also accusing us of fraud and tax evasion. All of this is now in the hands of solicitors.

Certain members of our staff who had been given jobs by the centre, to start after we were due to leave on the 30th, have now had these offers recinded, and they are also taking legal action against the centre.

It makes it more difficult to pay the rent when the stock is gone. The shop owner has just lost means of raising the money. The landlord really wasn't thinking about that, or maybe he had a way of selling off the goods himself. This economic situation is destroying alot of businesses.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

The real question here is was there a clause in their contract that allowed the landlord to do this? In the boom years people agreed to insane things and guarantees in contracts (in my opinion).

It sounds almost too good to be true because if the landlord did it off their own back the compensation and defamation payouts would be huge, which as awful as it sounds would be a nice exit for a company behind on rent.

maxer68

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan wrote: »

The real question here is was there a clause in their contract that allowed the landlord to do this? In the boom years people agreed to insane things and guarantees in contracts (in my opinion).

It sounds almost too good to be true because if the landlord did it off their own back the compensation and defamation payouts would be huge, which as awful as it sounds would be a nice exit for a company behind on rent.

No matter what is was agreed, a 7 day notice must be provided. If this was provided and there was money outstanding, the lanlord can re-posess a premises. If it was not given, then the landlord cannot re-enter the premises unless given permission by the leaseholder.


In any case, the landlord cannot hold goods you own to ransom on another premises - the sheriff can, but not a landlord.

Hopefully you have a half decent solicitor who has good knowledge of company law. In this case it would be worth paying for a barrister's opinion and if he/she agrees with you, there could be a good payday.