Office Burglaries - Awkward Landlord

Safehands

I rent a small office including a small storage area.Ours is one of several offices in the building. Recently we have had a couple of break-ins. There used to be an alarm in the building, but it has not worked for about five years. We have asked the landlord to get it fixed bit he refuses to do so. If I fix it I will be paying for alarming all of the areas common to all tenants. The insurance are insisting on a working alarm. The other tenants say it is up to the landlord and they don't want to pay. Do I have to pay or does the landlord have a responsibility to alarm his areas?

listermint

What does your lease say.

Id start there first.

Safehands

listermint wrote: »

What does your lease say.

Id start there first.

All it says is that the tenant must turn on the alarm when he leaves the building at night.

D3PO

Safehands wrote: »

All it says is that the tenant must turn on the alarm when he leaves the building at night.

sounds to me therefore that the landlord is obliged to have a working alarm. However I know little about commercial renting law so Im not really best placed to answer here.

Gasherbraun

I will be honest and say that most of my experience of commercial leases is UK based but I think that a lot of commercial leases in Ireland are FRI...that is full repairing and insuring liability rests with the tenant. I would check this first.

If you are on a FRI lease then the repair would be down to you / the other tenants.

The Concrete Doctor

Gasherbraun wrote: »

I will be honest and say that most of my experience of commercial leases is UK based but I think that a lot of commercial leases in Ireland are FRI...that is full repairing and insuring liability rests with the tenant. I would check this first.

If you are on a FRI lease then the repair would be down to you / the other tenants.

I don't think that applies. We are only one of a few tenants. The landlord has carried out repairs to common areas before, so he has set a precedent there.

Safehands

The Concrete Doctor wrote: »

I don't think that applies. We are only one of a few tenants. The landlord has carried out repairs to common areas before, so he has set a precedent there.

Yes That is very similar to ourselves. He doesn't do many repairs but has carried out some. There is an alarm which was installed by him so surely he has to fix it.

Victor

The series of burglaries is likely to continue until security is beefed up and deters the particular burglar / gang. You could look at fitting a wireless alarm, lighting and/or cameras.

I would suggest that the term in the lease saying the alarm must be set and the fact that there was an alarm gives rise to a legitimate expectation that the alarm would work. However, that it hasn't worked for 5 years would likely go against you. You should consult a solicitor if there is no progress with the landlord.

What condition is the fire alarm in?

Gasherbraun wrote: »

I will be honest and say that most of my experience of commercial leases is UK based but I think that a lot of commercial leases in Ireland are FRI...that is full repairing and insuring liability rests with the tenant. I would check this first.

If you are on a FRI lease then the repair would be down to you / the other tenants.

FRI leases are common, but the situation suggests an IRI or an even more casual arrangement.

Valentine1

Its not possible to say without seeing your lease or license agreement. FRI leases are usually only appropriate where the Tenant has full control of a building by a lease for a reasonable length of time, something like 5 or 10 years. The fact that there are common areas that are out of your control would suggest that this is not the case here and I'm presuming that the insurance you are talking about is for the contents of the office and not building insurance.

The Landlord probably knows full well that a working alarm is his responsibility but is either too cheap or too broke to pay for it. You certainly shouldn't install any alarm yourself, particularly not in the common areas. You don't have permission and you would have a very difficult time recovering the cost from either the landlord or the other tenants.

Safehands

Valentine1 wrote: »

The Landlord probably knows full well that a working alarm is his responsibility but is either too cheap or too broke to pay for it. You certainly shouldn't install any alarm yourself, particularly not in the common areas. You don't have permission and you would have a very difficult time recovering the cost from either the landlord or the other tenants.

Can I install a motion sensor in the entrance area and deduct it from his rent?

Valentine1

Safehands wrote: »

Can I install a motion sensor in the entrance area and deduct it from his rent?

Not without his permission and agreement.

I'm presuming You don't have "control" of the entrance area. Your best option is too start writing to the landlord and generally annoy him into getting the alarm fixed. if this doesn't work you should consider moving from the building. Just on the facts you have given I would consider installing an alarm yourself or at your own expense to be the worst possible option.

If the landlord won't cooperate you should speak to a solicitor. they will be able to advise you on how to go about either getting the alarm fixed or moving to new premises without violating the terms of whatever lease or licence agreement you have.

angelfire9

Can you get an alarm installed on the part of the premises you are renting? Rather than the common entrance

Safehands

angelfire9 wrote: »

Can you get an alarm installed on the part of the premises you are renting? Rather than the common entrance

Yes we can are we are but that may not be good enough for our insurance