Lessee alleges a kick in the Nuts

A PRE-PACKAGING nut company is salty with its landlord, alleging it failed to provide proper fire exits and more than $50,000 was lost because of a lease bungle.

Nut House Burleigh Pty Limited, trading as Nuts About, has filed claims against Brammo Bay Pty Ltd in the Southport District Court.

It wants the court to order the fire exits be rectified, $53,000 in damages and for the lease to be registered.

Nuts About claims it leased the premises in Hutchinson St, Burleigh Heads, in January 2021 and was shown the building had been split in two with a wall down the middle.

A gym was located in the other unit.

“(Brammo’s) building work resulted in the premises having one fire exit which is more than 20m from the points of the floor of the premises,” it is claimed in the court documents.

Nuts About claims this is not in line with the Building Code of Australia, which requires no part of a floor be more than 20m from a fire exit.

“The premises are not, and were not at the commencement of the lease, fit for lawful occupation by (Nuts About) under the lease,” the court documents claim.

Nuts About alleges this meant a loss of more than $53,000 since May 2021 which is when the business would have become fully operational in Burleigh.

The business also claims it had forecast a loss of income of more than $96,000 in 12 months if it was still not able to use the unit.

The court documents also claim that Nuts About director Neville Janett had conversations with the landlord’s real estate agent Sean O’connor in November 2020 while looking to lease the entire property.

When Mr Janett said he wanted to lease the entire building, Mr O’connor allegedly replied: “You cannot have the gym side of the building yet, but they will be gone soon because the landlord wants them gone and is going to get rid of them.”

It is also alleged in the court documents that Mr O’connor said in an email: “I’ve made some calls with respect to your queries, firstly you may have first right of refusal to lease the gym’s tenancy upon their exit, that is fine.”

Mr Janett claims he was told Brammo was looking to evict the other tenant but was unable to do so until the Covid-19 legislation expired in January 2021.

Mr Janett told Mr O’connor that Nuts About did not wish to lease the premises if it was unable to use the entire building, the court documents claim.

It is alleged Mr O’connor said words to the effect that “the gym tenant would be gone by March 2021 at the latest” and that Nuts About should plan for the fit-out and the basis they would be able to lease the entire building”.

Nuts About claims it was misled because the gym tenant was not evicted and the second unit in the building was not available for it to lease.

Brammo Pty Ltd is yet to file a defence.