Recovering commercial rent in London
London rent is quarterly far more often than monthly, so arrears arrive in one large lump on a quarter day rather than creeping up. A missed March or June quarter day is frequently the first sign anything is wrong, and by then a full quarter is outstanding.
We act for landlords, managing agents and surveyors across Greater London, most often in the City, Canary Wharf, Shoreditch and Old Street and Holborn and Midtown 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
London is too large to treat as one market, and we do not. The City and the EC postcodes are dominated by professional occupiers whose goods are leased and whose fit-out belongs to the landlord. West London carries the industrial weight through Park Royal and the Great Western corridor. North London is independent retail and the Lee Valley trade belt. Camden and the NW postcodes split between hospitality and the NW10 industrial estates.
Because the right approach differs so much between them, we keep a separate page for each: West Central, East Central, West, North and North West London. If you already know the postcode, start there.
What tends to matter locally
Multi-let buildings with a managing agent in between the landlord and the tenant are the norm rather than the exception, which means the instruction usually comes from the agent and the lease has to be checked for who actually holds the right to distrain.
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.
London attendances are planned around the occupier’s trading hours, which in hospitality and logistics is rarely the middle of a working day.
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 London 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.