06/01/2023
The Sad Story of Nagawa-Grays Branch and it's Landlord
On Feb 2019, I inquired on a property at Grays Town Centre, Thurrock which I was interested to rent for a restaurant business. In meeting the landlord, however, the landlord suggested me to see another property instead of the one I was interested with as it was already taken.
He showed me a ground floor property in 10 High Street which was just bricks (shell and core). He offered me £2,500/ month for half of the property. I realised that it is not a good idea to take just the half front of the property and another tenant will take the half-back portion. It will be difficult to position toilets and waste disposal as there is no facility for Bin Storage at the front, meaning, staff will need to walk around the high street to the back of the property for waste disposal. I then put my intention to just get the whole property. He offered me £3,000/month for the whole ground floor. He asked for a 3-months deposit so he can secure the property for me. Since I was very new to business and was excited, I agreed. When I gave the deposit to him, he also mentioned about premium/ good will of £50,000 payable in 18 months. Due to my lack of experience in dealing with the process and since I already gave the cash deposit, I have nothing but to agree. I later on found out that he actually advertised the whole property for £2,750/ month, but then offered to me £2,500 for half of the property. I was unfortunately made to agree for the £3,000 rent.
Since I did not want to spend so much fund, I asked him if he could do some of the building works and I will pay him by way of royalty fee for the life of the lease (10 years). We agreed that on top of the £3,000.00/month rent, I will pay him additional £350.00 per month for the whole duration of the 10 year lease in exchange of him doing the toilets, ceiling, wiring/ electricals, divisions and the walls. He also gave me 1 month rent-free period as he said it will take less than a month for him to do the works. I agreed.
Issues have started during the construction works when his promised works were not done in one month and was delayed for 6 months. The toilets for example, he only actually just put in toilets bowls, not plumbed, I also ended buying wirings and consumer units for electrical works, doors for toilets and the divisions. I did plastering and everything. I ended up buying materials and doing stuff which he should have handled. The issues started here, most especially that he has been delaying the works for 6 months when he only gave me 1 month free rent to do the works. I have been paying rent while doing the works.
I had to deal with this issues just to get the shop done so I can open up the business to recoup my expenses. The landlord has not even completed the lease when I already paid him £1500 for his solicitors to prepare the lease. 6 months after, the shop was finally done and I can finally open the shop. However, the lease was not available and he did not give me all the keys of the property so I can't do operate unless the lease is completed. After all stressful dealings with him, he finally gave the keys and the lease for me to sign.
in August 2019, I opened the restaurant until pandemic came in early 2020. Since my business is a Japanese restaurant, we were amongst the ones to suffer first the stigma of COVID Scare. During the 1st lockdown, we were closed for 3 months. I have offered the landlord half of the rent as we were closed. But he wanted a full payment. Since I can't afford full rent with the business not operating, I still paid him half of the rent, despite knowing the UK government urging landlords to be considerate to commercial and residential tenants during that time.
From the year 2020, the shop has been flooded several times from water leaks from the landlord's rented flats on the upper floor. Despite complaints, the landlord, has not been actioning even highlighting to him that the flooding will make the business suffer. The landlord was not at all concerned eventhough I sent him videos and photos regarding the flooding episodes. He is only pushy when it comes to getting rents.
The brother of the landlord is another story. He is bully. I put out their sofa that was in our shop as we need space and he has been demanding me take it inside. He is provocative and he has even the guts to report to the police by using a trimmed CCTV video as his evidence when he knows the whole video will show he was the one aggressive.
I also had a big problem with our utilities. Since construction until our closure, the landlord did not show where our electric and water meters.
In 2021, I was able to put-up a new similar business in Southend. This is where I learned how the landlord in Grays has taken advantage of me. When I took a new lease from another landlord, I figured out how to get a commercial lease thru a proper channel, thru solicitors. The landlord in Grays did not prepare the lease thru solicitors as he promised, despite the payments he collected from me. Our solicitors should have made the transactions on our behalf. I learned that a premium fee is not payable to a property that is just shell and core (plane empty bricks). Premium or good will is only payable to business properties being sold with its equipments, supplies, etc.
The new property in Southend is already prebuilt, almost ready to fit in our equipments and the landlord gave us 6 months rent-free period to do further works. The landlord in Grays is so thick-faced that he only gave 1 month rent-free periods when his property is just bricks and will need huge amount of monies and time to repair/ build it.
With all these, I was finally fed up and decided to give up. So in March 2022, I gave him notice. I asked him that I need to take back the (£50,000 premium fee that he was not supposed to collect from me). I proposed that I will take this money thru rent. On computation including the £9,000 deposit, I was supposed to stay for further 18 months to recoup all the money and then turnover his shop even with our improvements not valued. He will still end-up benefiting on these. Unfortunately, last October 2022, without notice, he went to the shop in the night and changed all the locks with all my business stuff inside his property. Equipments, stocks and the improvements are all locked-up inside his property.
Our staff unfortunately, without notice, have lost their jobs. The loyal customers, have lost one of their dining/ take-away options.
I have reckoned that the Landlord in Grays have done the following illegal acts:
1. Collecting a premium fee on a shell and core property.
2. Collecting solicitors fee for solicitors when he prepared the lease by himself.
3. Not actioning destructive flood complaints on his property.
4. Entering/ forfeiting/ re-entering the premises without notice and without proper channel/ procedure. He put the law into his hands.
We have reported this to the police but they advised that it is a civil matter and will not act on it. We highlighted that it is a criminal act, considering the amount of money being robbed from us. We also highlight several residential tenants on the upper floor that have suffered from this landlord. We have heard their stories. The police told us to tell these tenants to complain to them separately. They advised us to contact citizens advice bureau or our solicitors.
If there are solicitors out there who would want to take this case in a no win no fee basis, or we can even donate to charities a portion of whatever we recover from this landlord. We do not want to spend any more penny for legal process for this landlord. He has eaten a lot already.
A big money is at stake for those who want help. These are:
1. The value of our improvements ( Estimated at (£50,000-£80,000).
2. Monthly loss of income (£21,000-£25,000 each month)
3. Equipments (estimated at (£15,000-20,000)
4. Stocks (estimated at £8,000-£12,000)
5. Artworks of the members of Thurrock Art Society which have also been locked inside the property.
6. £50,000 premium fee (minus rents that we did not pay to recover this).
7. £9,000 deposit
Photo: Just some part of the improvements we made on this shop from its original state and the floodings
