How to instruct a bailiff to forfeit a commercial lease

What is a lease forfeiture?

If you own a commercial property, you (the landlord) can end that commercial lease by exercising your contractual right to end the lease by gaining peaceable possession. This can only occur if a qualifying event has occurred.

Forfeiture of lease is a very fast and effective way to get your property back.

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“Forfeiture of lease” clause

Most commercial leases contain something called a “forfeiture of lease” clause. This allows the landlord to forfeit the lease if the tenant breaks certain conditions contained in the lease, usually including the non-payment of rent or insurance being overdue for a specified period of time. Once a tenant has broken any of these conditions outlined in the lease, the landlord must act quickly to forfeit the lease, or be deemed to have waived the right to do so.

Acceptance by the landlord of an arrangement for late payment of rent is likely to be viewed as an act of waiver.

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How to instruct Quality Bailiffs to forfeit a lease

If your tenants are still in occupation of your commercial property but have broken any of the terms in the lease forfeiture clause in your lease, you can instruct us without having to go to court. The cost of a standard lease forfeiture of a commercial lease is ￡395 plus VAT. Additional charges (instructing a shutter engineer, a locksmith, or issuing a torts notice are charged extra and will be discussed with you before the work is undertaken).

Once your warrant is received (an instruction issued by the landlord) one of our team will contact you within two hours to confirm receipt of the warrant, to check the details, and to plan and action the warrant. This will happen the next business day at the latest.

Your case will then be loaded onto our system and allocated to our nearest Enforcement Agent who will liaise with a locksmith to execute the warrant. This usually happens within 24 hours, however, if a shutter engineer is required it could take a little longer to arrange.

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What if you want to recover the rent arrears also?

If you instruct us to forfeit a lease, by recovering the arrears for rent you waiver that right and forfeiture of lease can no longer be performed. You can either perform CRAR (commercial rent arrears recovery, see link to article here) or forfeiture of lease, not both.

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FAQs

The property has a flat above it that the tenant lives in, can you still do a forfeiture?

No, forfeiture of a mixed-use property (both commercial and residential) is now illegal. To remove tenants in a case like this you would have to go to court to get a possession order.

What happens to the tenant’s goods?

Following a lease forfeiture, the landlord cannot just dispose of goods that the tenant has left behind. The goods are covered by the Torts Act 1977, which makes the landlord an involuntary bailee. This means they have possession, but not ownership, of the goods. A torts notice gives the tenant at least 14 days to remove their belongings.

Can we help to remove the tenant’s goods?

Yes, you can hire Quality Bailiffs to supervise the tenant’s re-entry and removal of their goods. Usually, the cost of this (and any other expenses) lies with the tenant under a clause in the lease, however, you would need to check your lease for this.

What is the forfeiture clause?

The forfeiture clause in the lease specifies that if certain breaches of the lease occur, it will activate the clause. This will then trigger penalties which will usually include forfeiture by peaceable re-entry. It may also be referred to as a re-entry clause.

Have another question?

For more information on High Court Enforcement, visit our website qualitybailiffs.co.uk or alternatively, get in touch using the contact details below:

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