What a landlord can do, and how fast

A commercial landlord has quicker remedies than most creditors. Where principal rent is outstanding, enforcement agents can be sent in to take control of goods at the premises without a court order, on seven clear days’ notice. A landlord can also end the lease and retake the premises, draw down the rent deposit, pursue a guarantor, or petition to wind the company up.

If the lease is ended, the company can usually apply to the court to get it back on paying the arrears and costs — but that has to be done quickly.

Dilapidations

The repairing obligation is frequently the biggest number in the lease and the one nobody has provided for. A schedule of dilapidations at the end of a term can run to a very substantial figure. It is capped by reference to what the disrepair actually costs the landlord in value, but it is still often the largest single claim against the company.

Two traps

You probably guaranteed it. Directors personally guarantee commercial leases far more often than they remember, and that guarantee survives whatever happens to the company.

Leases you have already left. If the company assigned a lease on, it may have guaranteed the incoming tenant — leaving it liable for premises it walked away from years ago.

Where a sale fits

Rent arrears, service charge balances, dilapidations exposure and ongoing lease liabilities are within scope. We need the lease itself, any deed of guarantee, and the correspondence. If you guaranteed the lease personally, say so in the first conversation.