WA Commercial Lease - Legal Eviction under Property Law?

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Aga Ostrowska

Member
20 July 2015
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I got evicted from my shop in April. About 3 weeks later, I noticed new sign being put in for new business, spoke with that business owner and she told me she is not moving in till end of July as they building the whole displays and tanks inside (pet shop). The work kept progressing as I could see. Today I got a final invoice from the landlord stating I owe them for all charges till 22 July, which is 2 days ahead.

My understanding is that like in many commercial leases he did offer them 2 months rent free period but kept it out of the commercial lease, charging me for it while using they had a use of the property.

Is that legal under property law? Not only it's a huge amount of money but this way he manages to get himself to different court where now he can use lawyers, something I can not afford at $300 per hour.
 

Ivy

Well-Known Member
10 February 2015
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Hi Aga,

  1. Why were you evicted from your shop?
  2. What does your lease say about evictions and being liable to pay? i.e. why did you need to continue paying after the date of eviction?
Commercial leases are largely determined by the contractual terms. If your lease makes you liable to pay until someone else takes over the lease, then getting the new shop owner to show you a lease that pre-dates the 22nd July should help you to argue that you don't have to pay for her rent-free period.
 
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