09/25/2020
Feel free to share our tragic story.....
Tagalongs was not lost due to Covid (the short version):
Tagalongs Play Place in Fairfield New Jersey (our second location) opened in November of 2019. When the lease was signed in May of 2019 I demanded an exclusivity clause as I had already been informed a national chain had been looking at the property but couldn’t make a deal with the landlord.
After months and months of work we finally opened, but were closed in March due to Covid.
Every month I reached out to the landlord as I feared this would be a long term issue.
The landlord agreed in writing to spread the money owed over the remaining 9 years of the lease from when we could open and be profitable again.
The landlord and his staff constantly gave me a hard time about everything, including fees they claimed I owed but can prove I don’t. His bookkeeper charged rent and applied my first months payment when rent wasn’t due. There were also issues of invoices with the exact same invoice number but different balances. Regardless, they were and are still wrong. I’ve paid. Our delayed opening was due to them painting sprinkler heads black leaving us so we could not open.
I do not live very close to Fairfield and have not had much reason to be there during the pandemic. It’s just been too sad to see.
A few weeks ago I went to our location to pick up mail, and what do I see but a sign on the property next door (which is going to be attached to our current property) that this national kids franchise is coming soon. At the same time the landlord reaches out giving me a hard time about the rent again. Mind you the deal we made about the rent was in July 2020.
I contacted a lawyer due to the exclusivity clause and a demand letter was sent on our behalf that we could not compete with a national franchise, we still can’t be open because of the executive order, and we need to pay off all the debt from our equipment which is personally guaranteed by me.
Within a few days I am slammed with a civil court action for not only eviction but the remainder of the lease payments for over 9 years (well over a million dollars). His excuse for what he did with the exclusivity clause was that he signed their lease under a separate LLC that he owns, which just happens to be registered to the exact P.O. Box in Brooklyn as the LLC my lease is under.
With this a lot more information comes to light. The landlord did our build out with no permit by lying to the town, which is a major problem. He agreed to providing in our lease ada compliant bathrooms (but they aren’t). The list goes on and on.....
Being the personal guarantor on leases and
Loans is a very big deal. Don’t pay, they go over all your personal and business assets.
We can’t move the equipment out of the unit because of the loans (we need permission which we can’t get), we must vacate as everyday it gets worse, and we have no money.
We have a great case against what was done to us, but due to him filing first we are the defendants, and this could be tied up in litigation for years. Sadly years we don’t have. Bill collectors want their money!
I am a single mom, I am disabled with MS, and soon I will have nothing. No home, no businesses, nothing!
For the record, Tagalongs is not the only business in that shopping center behind on rent from covid (but the only business with an agreement in writing), Tagalongs is the only business being evicted, and Tagalongs is the only woman owed business that was not grandfathered in when our landlord bought the building.
The deal with the national chain was made before covid. So regardless what we did this was inevitable.
I have had offers to help pay for attorney fees, but it’s too late. He wants us out NOW!
I’m finally telling the story because it’s the truth! A truth that people should know. A place for all children will be taken over by a place that does not care about spectrum disorders, they do not care about overstimulation. Tagalongs was one of a kind, and now it’s gone.
