UK Landlord Forum / Life

Advice needed......
Good afternoon all, i have a commercial property, the previous tenant sublet without my consent to another chap. I am in the process of getting a new lease drawn up for the new tenant as the other one has since disappeared with thousands in arrears.
My solicitors have taken close to 6 months to draw up the new lease, will post details on them later, they have been appalling, but my question is, without an agreement in place can i demand the back rent from when this new tenant came in? He has been in my property trading without paying rent to the previous tenant or me ?
We had an agreement that he would take over a new lease, but my solicitors give me conflicting answers regarding the rent payments without a signed lease. The new lease has a demand for the back dated rent to be paid as per agreement, but should he refuse this, do i have any legal standings to recover the back rent?
Any advice would be welcome and appreciated. Thanks for your time guys,

Hang on... haven't you talked to him?

He agrees with you, right, that he's not been paying any rent to anyone for the time he's been there? One assumes that's a longer timeframe than 6 months.

If he agrees with that, then why would he even not want to pay the 'arrears' to you now?

And, if he doesn't, then why would you want him as a Tenant?

The legal part or demanding anything doesn't really come into this, does it? Obtain agreement (at a discount if that suits) that the missing rent is paid to you and then you re-start. If there's refusal - take another route?

You should be grateful that your solicitor has been slow.Given what has happened so far,why on earth would you want to give him legal rights to screw you over even more? Seriously,go and look in the mirror,is there a handle growing out of one side of your head?