Recovering commercial rent in Newport
Newport sits on the M4 between Cardiff and Bristol, and its commercial property reflects that: a substantial distribution and industrial base along the eastern side of the city, with a retail and office core that has been through considerable change.
Industrial and trade property runs through Queensway Meadows, Spytty, Leeway Industrial Estate, Crindau and the docks. Retail and leisure sit around Friars Walk, Commercial Street and the High Street. Office stock is concentrated around Cambrian Road and the newer riverside development.
The estates east of the city are where CRAR is most likely to be worth taking to an attendance, because the units hold stock, plant and vehicles. Newport city-centre retail has had a difficult decade and arrears there often reflect a business that cannot recover, which changes what enforcement will realistically achieve.
What tends to matter locally
CRAR is identical in Wales and England, and there is no separate Welsh enforcement procedure. Residential letting is different: the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 replaced assured shorthold tenancies with occupation contracts, and while that does not touch commercial leases, a mixed-use Newport property needs checking before anyone assumes CRAR is available.
The second point is candour about the city centre. Where a retail tenant is failing rather than simply late, taking control of goods may recover very little and will certainly end the tenancy. We will say which we think it is.
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 Newport 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 Newport 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.