Recovering commercial rent in Brighton
Brighton is dominated by independent retail, hospitality and leisure, most of it in small units on short leases, and most of it trading on a seasonal pattern that has nothing to do with the rent quarters. That shapes both what enforcement can recover and when it is sensible to start.
Retail and hospitality run through the Lanes, North Laine, Western Road and Church Road in Hove, with the seafront leisure stock and the restaurant trade on Preston Street and around the station. Office space concentrates in Hove and around New England House. Industrial and trade property is comparatively scarce and sits at Hollingbury, Moulsecoomb, Portslade and out towards Newhaven and Shoreham Port.
Independent retail holds stock, and stock is what makes CRAR work. The Hollingbury and Portslade units hold more. A seafront bar holds fit-out and inventory. A two-desk agency above a shop in North Laine may hold nothing at all.
What tends to matter locally
Mixed use is the single biggest obstacle in Brighton. A very large share of the retail stock is a shop with flats above, and CRAR is not available at all where any part of the demised premises is let as a dwelling. The demise in the lease is what governs, not the appearance of the building, and we read it before anything is served.
The second is the trading year. A Brighton business that looks hopeless in February is often perfectly capable of clearing arrears by September. Enforcing in the quiet months can leave a landlord with an empty unit and nobody to pay, and we will say so where that is the likely outcome.
How quickly we can be there
We aim to be with you within two hours, though being straight about it, that is rarely what decides the outcome: the compliance stage runs from the office, and the tenant first gets a written Notice of Enforcement with fourteen clear days to run before anybody attends. Most commercial arrears are settled inside that period without an attendance at all.
Where an attendance is needed in Brighton we plan it around the occupier rather than around our diary, and we say honestly beforehand whether the goods on site are likely to justify the visit.
The statutory fees
Under the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 the fees are fixed by statute: a £79 compliance fee when the Notice of Enforcement is issued, and a further £247 plus 7.5% of anything above £1,900 if an enforcement visit becomes necessary, with the full statutory scale set out in full separately.
Those figures are fixed by regulation, not by us, and they are the same in Brighton as anywhere else in England and Wales.
Before you instruct us
Two things decide whether CRAR can be used at all:
- The lease must be a commercial one, in writing, with no part of the property let as a dwelling.
- At least seven days' rent must be outstanding, net of VAT, interest and any deduction the tenant could properly claim, which is the statutory minimum under section 77(3) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.
If both hold, we can usually have a Notice of Enforcement out the same working day we are instructed.