Recovering commercial rent in Bristol
Bristol sits either side of the Severn from us, and a good deal of our South West work comes from landlords who hold property on both sides of the bridge. Avonmouth in particular is warehousing and distribution, where arrears run into five figures quickly because the units are large.
We act for landlords, managing agents and surveyors across the South West, most often in the Old City and Queen Square, Temple Quay, Stokes Croft and Bedminster and the surrounding commercial areas. The procedure is the same wherever the property is, but what actually works on the ground is not, and it is worth understanding the difference before instructing anybody.
Where the work is
The Bristol arrears we see most often sit in three places: the distribution and logistics units at Avonmouth and Severnside, the office stock around Temple Quay and the centre, and independent retail and hospitality through Bedminster, Stokes Croft and Gloucester Road. Trade counters and light industrial fill Brislington and St Philip’s Marsh.
Avonmouth is the part that matters most for enforcement. Distribution units hold stock, racking and handling equipment, which gives a far stronger position for taking control of goods than a serviced office in the centre. The caution there is ownership: pallets and plant on a logistics site are frequently on hire, lease or retention of title, and none of that can be taken.
What tends to matter locally
Stokes Croft and Bedminster are full of independent retail and hospitality on short leases. Those tenants often have very little worth taking control of, so a realistic payment arrangement usually recovers more than an attendance would.
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.
Bristol is within comfortable reach and we attend regularly. Where the goods on site are likely to belong to somebody other than the tenant, we will say so before an attendance rather than after it.
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 Bristol 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.