We bought the lease to a restaurant in 2006 from a woman who had been running it as a café. We spent thousands on the property but two years ago we sold the lease back to her when my husband became ill. She has now gone bankrupt and the landlord is demanding the rent from us. Is this right?
You will probably have agreed to guarantee the rent for the premises, in which case it’s possible that if the womans trustee in bankruptcy disclaims the lease you may be obliged to take up a new lease from the landlord. This will put you on the hook for the same period as the disclaimed lease. If this happens you can either sell the new lease on again, or use the premises yourself in order to generate an income with which to pay the rent.