In 2012, I started a 3-year commercial lease on a small office in Melbourne CBD. When that ended, the agent emailed to ask if I would like to take up the next 3-year option outlined in the lease, and although I emailed to indicate I would like to take that up, and he emailed that the solicitors where advised to prepare documents, we never signed a new lease.
We now want to move offices (with ~15 months still in the current 3 years) but the agent says we have a 'principal agreement' and so we would be breaking the lease if we did that.
I don't agree - we didn't sign a new lease which they indicated we would need to in order to formalise the situation.
Who is right? Why?
Also, they have taken 21 days to advise us of this (after nagging), time in which we could have found new tenants, or changed our moving plans. Pretty frustrating!
Appreciate any help on all this.
The email thread is like this (edited for privacy), from January to March 2015:
This was the end of that discussion, and we never heard anything more about it from anyone, until now.
We now want to move offices (with ~15 months still in the current 3 years) but the agent says we have a 'principal agreement' and so we would be breaking the lease if we did that.
I don't agree - we didn't sign a new lease which they indicated we would need to in order to formalise the situation.
Who is right? Why?
Also, they have taken 21 days to advise us of this (after nagging), time in which we could have found new tenants, or changed our moving plans. Pretty frustrating!
Appreciate any help on all this.
The email thread is like this (edited for privacy), from January to March 2015:
Agent: Your lease term expires on **/**/2015. Do you have intention on taking up the further 3 year term?
Me: Hi Agent, yes at this stage we intend on taking up the next term.
However, I would also like to look at our other options before committing.
Me (later): Hi Agent, do we need to sign a new lease to start the next 3 year term?
Agent: We have advised the owners solicitor who will prepare the relevant lease documents.
In regards to the rent review, it is set to "market value" for * ** 2015. The owner has proposed to increase it by 4%, keeping in line with the fixed annual percentage increases, as well as 4% yearly increase for the 2nd term, in line with the 1st.
The solicitor acting on behalf of the Lessor is: ***
Me: Hi Agent, yes at this stage we intend on taking up the next term.
However, I would also like to look at our other options before committing.
Me (later): Hi Agent, do we need to sign a new lease to start the next 3 year term?
Agent: We have advised the owners solicitor who will prepare the relevant lease documents.
In regards to the rent review, it is set to "market value" for * ** 2015. The owner has proposed to increase it by 4%, keeping in line with the fixed annual percentage increases, as well as 4% yearly increase for the 2nd term, in line with the 1st.
The solicitor acting on behalf of the Lessor is: ***
This was the end of that discussion, and we never heard anything more about it from anyone, until now.