Businesses warned, "check Your Lease"

Businesses warned, "check Your Lease"

Business owners could be liable for payment of rent long after they have vacated a property. That’s the warning from Adams & Remers solicitors, following a recent court ruling.

The case of Newham v Van Staden has caused concern in legal circles because leases thought to be excluded from security of tenure provisions in the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 might not in law be excluded after all

The new ruling means that anyone who was a former tenant of a lease could remain liable for a ‘holding over’ period long after the original tenancy has been assigned to a third party. Therefore the former tenant may think his responsibility has ended at the end of the original lease so what they believe to be excluded leases should be checked.

“This has widespread ramifications for any business owner that has owned a lease on their own or other properties,” says Robin Illingworth, Managing Partner at Adams & Remers. “Basically, they could now find themselves liable to rent payments many months or years after they have vacated a property.”

The Van Staden ruling also means that businesses who have not spelled out this potential liability in their records could find themselves liable for misleading accounts. Robin Illingworth comments: “Our advice, following this case, is that businesses should seek legal guidance as soon as possible to confirm whether the Van Staden decision applies to any leases which they have formerly owned and ‘were excluded’.  Otherwise, they may have a nasty shock when they get a big demand for back payment of rent for a property they no longer have anything to do with.”

Read more

Latest News

Read More

Why so many smart leaders are terrible at leading people

29 July 2025

Talent Management

29 July 2025

Deepfake interviews. Synthetic faces. Tampered documents. As generative AI reshapes identity fraud, traditional screening methods are being put to the test. Giant Screening CEO Mathew...

Worklife Balance

28 July 2025

The issue isn’t just about time management; it’s about mental bandwidth. The cognitive load of managing multiple priorities can leave little room for self-care, creativity,...

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

Queen Mary University of London – IT Services DirectorateSalary: £54,617 to £60,901 per annum

University of Sussex – Human Resources Salary: £25,733 to £29,179. Grade 4, per annum, pro rata if part time

UCL – Chemistry Department / Faculty of Mathematical & Physical SciencesSalary: £54,172 to £63,752

University of Oxford – Department of PsychiatrySalary: £31,459 to £36,616 (discretionary range to £39,749) per annum. Grade 5

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE