The owners confirmed on Monday they had “changed the locks” at the hotel at 10.30am after revealing the present lessees, Norm Birse and Paul Quinn, had breached several sections of their agreement to run the pub including the non-payment of rent.

Mr Birse and Mr Quinn had taken over the running of the venue from freehold owner Chris Moscher and associates almost two years ago.

“The decision was made at 10:30am today to change the locks after the tenants confirmed they will not be paying the arrears owed,” Mr Moscher said in a statement.

“I am led to believe the tenants have not informed the staff and have removed several items from the hotel during Sunday night.

“The freehold owners will shut the hotel for a short period to conduct some minor renovations and start the process of finding appropriate new tenants.

“We have several potential tenants to date and look forward to getting the pub open as soon as practically possible.”

The pub was open on Sunday, but all doors were locked yesterday as speculation grew of a sudden closure.

According to the pub’s Facebook page, the Kinross is “closed for maintenance” and will be re-opening October 26.

The Border Mail attempted to contact Mr Birse and Mr Quinn for comment.

They agreed to a 25-year lease to run the Kinross, which has hosted some of the biggest names in Australian music including Jimmy Barnes, Vanessa Amorosi, Adam Brand, Beccy Cole and Adam Harvey.