UK Landlord Forum / Life

Evening All,

I wasn't sure if I should post this in the Landlord or Tenant forum, so apologise in advance.

My current situation is that I hold a master tenancy to an entire property with a landlord. I use the ground floor for commercial purposes and have sub-let the first floor as a residential dwelling. The master landlord approved me to sub-let the first-floor residential area as part of my tenancy

For the past 18 months, I have been stuck in a court battle to evict the sub-tenant of the flat, due to none payment of rent and miss use of the property, however, this battle is still ongoing. 

Due to the lack of rental income, along with the ongoing legal costs which are now in the 1000's, I have found myself in significant financial hardship and have personally had to enter into an IVA

I'd like to understand what my position is if I give my months notice on the master tenancy?  Firstly is this allowed? Secondly, if it is am I just passing the problem of the sub-tenant onto the master landlord?

I would appreciate any help or guidance anyone could give?

Thanks

Master Tenacy is known as the Head Lease.
You are the Mesne Tenant with a Mesne Tenancy
The Subtenant has the Subtenancy

This isn’t a straight forward answer but GENERALLY...

1. I can’t say whether a months notice is allowed in your Tenancy without reading the Tenancy Agreement.  Usually commercial leases do not include such a right.

2. If you end the Mesne Tenancy the Subtenacy also ends. 

(I won’t bother explaining what happens if the Head Landlord accepts rent payment etc. as none is forthcoming in this case).

In which case the Head Landlord can evict the subtenant.
Basically you pass the buck to the Head Landlord.
Obviously I know don’t the issues around your case but it is possible the Head Landlord has a cleaner case to evict the subtenant. 
The Head Landlord will be very unhappy. 
If he permitted the subtenant then he should have at that time included contractual rights to sue you as the Mesne Tenant for damages to recover the costs of evicting the subtenant.

It seems you have a “mixed use” property and while I can infer some things from your brief post you’d need to confirm whether the subtenant is only a residential tenant and what type of Tenancy agreement he has (sounds a like an AST)?