Several routes, some of them fast — and some that quietly give up your right to forfeit. The order you take them in matters.
A commercial tenant has stopped paying rent. Unlike an ordinary trade debt you have several routes, some of them fast — and some of them carry a consequence most landlords do not expect, which is that using them can waive your right to forfeit the lease.
This page is the routes, what each one costs you, and the order worth thinking about them in. It covers commercial premises only. Residential tenancies are a different regime entirely and we do not act in them.
The answer changes the whole strategy, and landlords often have not decided.
You want the tenant to stay and pay. Then forfeiture is the last thing you want, and you should be careful about any step that pushes towards it. A payment plan with the arrears documented is usually better than an empty unit.
You want the premises back. Then forfeiture matters and you must avoid waiving the right to it — which is easy to do by accident.
If you know of a breach and then do something that acknowledges the lease as continuing — most obviously demanding or accepting rent that fell due after the breach — you can waive the right to forfeit for that breach. Sending an automated rent demand while simultaneously instructing someone to forfeit is a classic and expensive own goal.
This is why we ask what you want before recommending anything. On arrears, the cheap fast routes and the forfeiture route pull in opposite directions, and mixing them is how landlords end up with neither the money nor the unit.
The same instrument as any commercial debt, and for a tenant who is simply late rather than failing, usually the whole answer. It preserves every other option and costs the least.
A statutory procedure allowing an enforcement agent to take control of goods at the premises for unpaid principal rent. It is quick and it does not need a court order — but it is hedged with conditions: it applies to commercial premises under a written lease, only to principal rent (not service charge or insurance), a minimum of seven days' rent must be outstanding, and seven clear days' notice must be given. Using CRAR waives the right to forfeit for that non-payment.
Fast and often overlooked. Check the deed for what it covers and what you must do to top it back up. Drawing down for rent may also waive forfeiture, so it is not neutral.
Check the lease and any authorised guarantee agreement. A former tenant or its guarantor may still be liable, but there are strict notice requirements for recovering fixed charges from them, and missing the window loses the claim.
The ordinary debt route, and the right one where you want a judgment you can enforce in several ways — and where the arrears include service charge and insurance that CRAR cannot touch.
Ending the lease, by peaceable re-entry or by court proceedings. For non-payment of rent a section 146 notice is generally not required, but the lease terms govern and the tenant can apply for relief. This is reserved territory once proceedings are involved and goes to RHF Solicitors.
A statutory demand and winding-up petition remain available for a clear undisputed sum, with the same cautions as any other debt — and the same costs. See statutory demands.
Most commercial leases carry their own interest provision, typically a margin over base rate, and where they do that is what applies. Where the lease is silent, whether the statutory late payment regime reaches a lease is not straightforward — rent under a lease is not obviously a contract for the supply of goods or services. We look at the lease before telling you what to claim rather than assuming.
Read the lease and any deposit deed or guarantee. Establish what is actually owed and under which heads. Ask what you want to happen to the tenancy. Then recommend a route, with the cost and the consequences of each — including which options you give up by taking it.
Peaceable re-entry is a real remedy for commercial premises, but it is not a casual one. Get it wrong — the right waived, the lease not permitting it, someone in occupation — and you face a relief application and a damages claim. It is a step to take on advice, not on a Friday afternoon.
No. CRAR reaches principal rent only. Service charge, insurance rent and dilapidations have to be pursued another way, which is often the reason a court claim is the better route even though it is slower.
Check the lease for a guarantee, and check whether a previous tenant or its guarantor remains liable. Without a guarantee you are a creditor of the shell — which is exactly why guarantees are worth insisting on at grant.
No. We act for the party who is owed money. On rent arrears that means landlords, and we would tell a tenant approaching us to take their own advice.
The letter-before-action checklist, the interest and compensation rules, and the escalation ladder with what each step costs. One email, no sequence.
Tell us what you are owed and who owes it. You get back what the debt is actually worth once interest and compensation are added, what we would do first, and the fixed fee for doing it.