Rights regarding tenancy for a business

unklerosco

Just looking for a bit of advice here regarding rights for a business that rents a room from a sports club.

We've been located in the facility for 6 years now, over that time we've paid rent each month.. sometimes for the months we where present in the facility and sometimes on an annual basis. So some years we may have paid rent for 10 months and other years 12 months. We have no lease etc. in place, we did write up a letter in 2010 to confirm what rent we paid and some other details but this was never signed... Over the 6 years we have only received around 15 months of invoices.

We had a meeting in January to discuss a agreement/licence/contract for rent etc. We have heard nothing since, even though we sent numerous emails to organise another meeting, after a number of emails in the last two weeks we had a meeting today. We where told that the club would not be allowing us to rent the room(two rooms actually) from September onwards (our business year is September to June). So after 6 years of paying rent, 6 years of blood sweat and tears thats it... We've 7 staff (mix of full and part time) that will have to be let go, and a large client base that we'll have to notify. The business is fully booked for September 2012, these bookings will have to be canceled etc.

Do we have any rights or is that it... Everything we've worked for for six years is gone, turned off like a light switch....

Procrastastudy

I'm confused as to how you got into this situation? How do you run a business without a lease? Hopefully an answer might help someone give you a better answer than I can. Although I really think a solicitor would be the best bet at this point. Why can't you move and set up somewhere else out of interest?

unklerosco

It was originally started as a verbal agreement... Both of the people that made the agreement have since left. We just continued on paying rent... Not for the want of trying to get a lease in place, I've been trying for nearly two years to get something in writing... I think a solicitor is our best bet at this stage... Was just hoping someone here might have some input...

It's not the kind of business you can pack up and move... Our client base is very local. If we move we loose our clients + it takes more than the 5 months notice they've given us to setup in a new location as there would be planning permission, inspections etc. etc. to sort out....

Procrastastudy

May I also ask what their reasons are for not wanting you there paying rent? Not as if it's easy to find people willing to give you money these days!

unklerosco

They said they need the rooms for meetings... Which is bull if u ask me, in jan they wanted to increase our rent as they weren't taking in enough $$$. That n the fact we use the rooms durning the day and they only have meetings after 6pm...