HELP! - Landlord harassment

[Ballito Bay]

We have rented a factory premises in Glasgow. We were assured that there was 3 phase electricity available in the unit, prior to renting it. When we took occupation there was no 3 phase electricity in the unit and the landlord promised they would have it put in, but then it took them two months to tell us actually it would cost them too much, but offered to move us to another factory unit that was nevertheless not suitable for our needs.

Instead we decided that we would run those current kilns that we had on single phase and see what we could do to rewire our workhorse to single phase because another move would delay production for another six weeks and we had already lost two and half months production.

However during month two,( May this year), we suffered major ingress of water through the roof. We keep a lot of dry raw materials that need to be kept dry, particularly the snowcrete we use for construction related projects. This was totally destroyed by the ingress of rain. We also suffered several shorting out of our electrics because of the rain getting into the wiring.

We complained again about this in June. The letting manager, told us they couldnt fix the roof until they had a dry day. We had several incidences of ingress of rain again during the month of July.

During the first weekend in August there was a heavy downpour and the drains in our building overflowed. We have a drain in the rear of our premises and the force of the water in the drains forced the plug out of the drain and our premises were submerged in about 8 to 12 inches of water. The damage can be estimated at about £12000.00 including loss of production.

It has transpired that there has been a pre existing problem with drains (annually) and the building gets flooded regularly. We were never told this, and it renders us uninsurable. The company that was called in to the clear the drains made it clear they were clearing years of debris and hadn't seen a problem like this for years.

It also appears that the landlord has no insurance as they are refusing to divulge their insurers details and keep claiming that Scottish Water is liable and they don't have to divulge their insurance details.

We then were flooded again a week ago and then again yesterday, We cant get production going because we cant recover from the flooding.

My partner wrote them a letter, explaining that since they were refusing to communicate with us at all.(None of our calls over the last three weeks have been returned), we have no choice but invite the local authority public health and building control in. Which we did.

We received a letter from them today notifying us that if we did not pay rent arrears by the last day of the month they will commence action. Except we're not in rent arrears.

We do have a dispute over electricity charges however. We were not given an opening reading for our electricity despite repeatedly asking for one, We have since then received random electric accounts including a standing charge with no details of the meter, or the meter readings. We believe they are taking the bill for the whole building and splitting it equally amongst the tenants. We used no electricity during the month of May (We were still shut down) but still got a considerable bill.

This is not rent arrears and our rent payments are clearly paid for and receipted.

We have tried everything possible to just get them to talk to us, but they seem to think if they ignore the problem, it'll go away. When we called public health in they threatened to evict us - on non existent grounds.

The public health officer has intimated to them that they are responsible for the clean up in our unit and should communicate with us, although we know they have already lied to the public health officer saying they have communicated with us when they haven't.

When the caretaker asked for access to the unit we said it would be no problem, they just had to call us and someone would be there within twenty minutes or less.

Now they want us to hand them a key to the premises so they can come and go as they like, without us there. We have electric and electronic equipment in there as well as tools well over the value of £50000.00 as well as our raw materials and hand tools as well as fittings and furnishings. right now I dont trust them, near anything of value without supervision.

We are part of a self insurance scheme, but cannot appoint a loss adjuster without knowing whether they are insured or not.

So with this background here are my questions:

1.) Are they legally required to have public liability insurance in their common public areas?

2.) What are any other insurance requirements under the law? Are they required to give this information if asked for it?

3.) Can they bill us for utilities without providing measurement and adequate explanation as to how the figure was achieved? Essentially is it legal to force us to share the bill equally with someone who obviously uses more power than we do.

4.) We have been told that they have just locked tenants out of their units, that were in dispute with them before and this would explain why they are alleging we are in arrears in rent, when we are NOT.

5.) In reality we just want out of this situation before we lose any more money, and can move over a period of ten days, can they lock us out without a court order?

Any rational court would see that they have been dishonest from the beginning, but we fear these guys are going to try the gangster route.

The tenancy agreement is short and simple and available in pdf for anyone wanting to offer their sixpence worth.

HELP!

 

[Simon-M]

Did you have insurance for these issues? I see you asking about insurance but what insurance do you actually have if any?

 

[Ballito Bay]

We comply with compulsory insurance liabilities including employers liability law, We are also self insured and made self funded insurance provision for £50 000.00 to cover all losses e.g. in case we had an freak fire etc.

We however do not believe we are liable for our own cover because of the failure to declare a pre existing problem by the landlord that we subsequently have discovered was never dealt with an no insurer would have covered anyway. We can employ a loss adjuster but his work is worthless without them telling us whether or not they're un/insured and if there is no insurer to claim against, then the scenario changes.The insurance issue is about whether or not they are insured and if they are with whom and whether they have adequate insurance.

This will enable us to make a decision as to whether we have to cover our own self insured losses, or whether we have a probability of a successful claim against their insurers. if they're not insured it changes the game entirely and the matter moves from a loss adjuster to a claim in court, where yet again we have to decide whether its worth our while to pursue, and it really does require very careful consideration

Having considered all the possibilities we can move and rebuild our business with our self insured funds without entering into a battle....

The real anxiety we have is whether we're going to have a problem over them claiming we're in rent arrears which we're not and how we resolve the issue regarding electricity and be left to quickly and quietly remove ourselves and our survivng equipment from the premises without further harassment or hindrance from them.

I really believe they dont care about the law, and we run the risk of turning up next week and find ourselves locked out..... now advice on that would really make a difference.

 

[webstore]

We have rented a factory premises in Glasgow. We were assured that there was 3 phase electricity available in the unit, prior to renting it. When we took occupation there was no 3 phase electricity in the unit and the landlord promised they would have it put in, but then it took them two months to tell us actually it would cost them too much

You really need to urgently contact your solicitor.

Given the landlord assured you that there was 3 phase electricity available in the unit and that formed an implied part of the rental agreement (written or oral) and that your decision to rent those premises was on the basis of that 3-phase being available as an important part of your business then I would have thought your landlord is in breach of contract BUT that is only my non legal opinion.
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[ethical PR]

Sorry to hear about your difficulties.

I would suggest you go back to the solicitors you used when you took out the lease for advise on your lease.

In terms of insurance, when I have rented property as the tenant I covered the content insurance and the landlord would have building's insurance. This is normally paid for by the tenant and is stipulated under the lease.

You can make a claim for your contents on your own insurance and may need to involve your solicitors who provided advice on your lease if it appears that the landlord is responsible for the buildings insurance.

 

[Ballito Bay]

Hi folks

We've been advised that they cannot just "throw us out". Also in Scottish tort law there is the law of delict. They knew that there was ingress of water and therefore knew the probability of damage to our premises was not only high but also extremely probable and did nothing within reasonable expectation to prevent it.

As far as insurance goes, we are self insured, which means we instruct our own assessors and adjusters, but unless they release their insurance details its a useless exercise. If they are not insured we have to pursue them ourselves. The lease makes it clear they are responsible for the fabric of the building and oddly enough refers specifically to the drains.

We are not counting on getting a single penny from them, and we believe any attempt to do so will involve a lengthy court battle, which even with a favourable judgement could prove difficult to enforce.

We have however needed reassurance that since the really rainy season hasnt even started we need to move our equipment, stock and materials as soon as possible to a dry and safe place and start all over. Our fear was with the history of their cowboy approach to everything so far, they are going to try and prevent us from accessing our premises by changing locks etc.

Even if they do so we now know we are justified in forcing entry, to remove and protect our goods.

Its one of those situations where we will pack and leave, notify them that they have breached the contract, quoting the relevant contract and legislation and if they wish to pursue us to serve our official service address which they have. It is unlikely they will bother.

We have decided the time has come to consider relocating the business elsewhere abroad, where there is less red tape, better tax incentives, a better export market and certainly a better labour market. Believe it or not there are still places elsewhere globally where the economies are healthier than ours.

Jut sad that we feel we have reached that point.