South Carolina. I have a business in a shopping center and I made a mistake. I was under the impression that my lease renewed automatically on my 5 year with 2 5 year options. So little did I know that my lease was done in feb of 2007, which was 10 months ago. I just received a letter from my management company saying I owe hold over base rent which is 200% of the total rent for the last 10 months. This was the first notice I have gotten. Had I gotten this notice and or some notice to renew I would have done so. I do not know what my landlord's motives are but this can quite possibly put me out of business. They also stated that they made several attempts to contact me about this but I never received such messages and would have acted upon it.
Also I was in the works on a new lease back in august with them to switch everything over to a LLC. But the numbers were wrong and I tried to contact them to no avail. Also I gave up on it cause I renewed my licenses for the business under the DBA and would cost me double to renew under another name so i decided to wait to sign the new lease. I wish I had now. I am not sure if they are willing to work with me but I can not afford to pay that hold over rent. Are they with in their legal rights to send a notice to collect after not saying anything for 10 months?
I would appreciate any advice.
Also I was in the works on a new lease back in august with them to switch everything over to a LLC. But the numbers were wrong and I tried to contact them to no avail. Also I gave up on it cause I renewed my licenses for the business under the DBA and would cost me double to renew under another name so i decided to wait to sign the new lease. I wish I had now. I am not sure if they are willing to work with me but I can not afford to pay that hold over rent. Are they with in their legal rights to send a notice to collect after not saying anything for 10 months?
I would appreciate any advice.