Recovering commercial rent in Liverpool
The Baltic Triangle carries a concentration of creative studios, bars and small workshops in converted warehouse space, much of it sublet. Where a tenant has sublet without consent, working out who actually holds the lease is the first job and it is rarely quick.
We act for landlords, managing agents and surveyors across Merseyside, most often in the commercial district around Castle Street, the Baltic Triangle, the docks and Liverpool Waters and Speke 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
Liverpool arrears divide between the city-centre retail and leisure stock around Liverpool ONE, Bold Street and the Baltic Triangle, and the industrial and distribution estates at Speke, Aintree, Knowsley and the northern docks. Office arrears come from the commercial district around Old Hall Street and the waterfront.
The Baltic Triangle is worth a specific word. A great deal of that space is let as studio or managed workspace under licences rather than leases, and CRAR requires a lease of commercial premises. A licence will not support it at all, and the goods in the room frequently belong to the operator rather than the occupier. That needs establishing on day one.
What tends to matter locally
Dock and port-adjacent units often hold goods belonging to third parties rather than the tenant. Taking control of goods that turn out to belong to someone else is a serious problem, so on those sites we establish ownership before anything is listed.
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.
Liverpool is a planned attendance for us rather than a same-day one, and we would rather say that plainly than promise a visit we cannot make.
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 Liverpool 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.