Best way to evict commercial tenants ?

A friend has a small bit of commercial property let to a small business, for the past ten years or so. The tenant is troublesome and increasingly difficult to deal with... he has not replied properly to numerous solicitors letters over the past 9 months, and is just dragging things out etc. The property owner wants to know has anyone any suggestions to "encourage" the tenant to leave ? The rent the tenant is paying only represents a yield of less than 1% of the value of the property.

But the tenant is paying the rent in time? Probably not a lot you can do, unless the tenant is egregiously in breach of the lease.

With regard to the 1% yield, is that because the property has increased in value while the tenant has a long term lease? If that's the case, the tenant is now getting the benefit of the risk he took at the beginning.

What do you mean by "troublesome" exactly?

What are the terms of the lease?

And what is the duration of the lease?

Is he planning to relet or sell? Is there a clause in the agreement about ending the agreement.

Vey little anyone can assist on here without knowing some of these essential details.

The tenant initially had a 2 year 11 month lease, many years ago. When this expired he just continued his business there, and paid his rent on a monthly basis....sometimes a month or two in arrears, but he continues to pay it.
He is refusing to pay any increase in rent over the years, to cover inflation / rising property values / rising cost of living etc....despite many meetings and solicitors letters since last year. He was also often unco-operative in relation to other matters eg parking, trespass etc , but has now toed the line more or less after many warnings over this. The landlord would however be happy to see him leave as he could get a more realistic 21st century rent from another tenant.

The landlord should really get legal advice on this one and how best to progress. As there is now no formal lease in place, the tenant has "rights of renewal" among other things. AAM is probably not the best place to find the answers you need.......

looks like a registered letter from the solicitor in next ..outlining what the landlord tends to do. If he chooses to ignore then its probably time for a court order to vacate.

I told the landlord I thought the solicitor was the best route to take. However, I heard of one case somewhere else where a landlord put a skip of smelly bags etc on his own ground, which was adjoining the tenants premises. It worked. I am not saying I condone what happened there, but sometimes I think the only winners in long disputes between solicitors etc are the solicitors themselves.

Well from what I have read so far, your friend needs to get a new solicitor in the first instance. His tenant is there and if he is paying etc, there is damn all that can be done. Your friend was wrong in not turfing him out. However he should be paying market rent or near enough. Get a decent lawyer. Expensive but worth it.

The tenant is holding over so even if his lease was a short one he has rights as he has been in occupation for 5 years under the Landlord and Tenant acts. To protect the tenant leglistation tends to be on their side. There are a number of very complicated issues here. As there is no lease in place it would be best to contact a solicitor - but one that deals with L&T law on commercial property not just your local guy. He then needs to do the following

1. Firstly a lease needs to be put in place
2. This Tenant has a right to a new lease unless it is an office and he has opted out of his rights to renew
3. There are ways he can get the tenant to leave but you have to be very careful on these.
4. The easiest of these is if he wants to redevlop the property but in order to do so he must have planning in place!
5. Im trying not to be horrible here but to get rid of him the best thing might be to offer him a new lease at market rent either short term or long term with rent reviews then screw him on the rent i.e. set it at a level that you know he cannot afford.

The best way to move this forward is a new lease then your friend can force him to obey the covenants this offers your friend some protection. Make sure that the lease refers any problems to arbitration rather than court as a Court Lease can be a problem with the courts generally tending to protect the tenant also he gets to choose the term and any problems end up back in court.
The bottom line is that he cannot do anything without a solicitor!