Recovering commercial rent in Northampton
Northampton sits at the centre of the country’s distribution triangle, and warehousing dominates its commercial property. The historic footwear trade has largely gone, but the trade and light industrial stock it left behind has not.
Distribution and industrial property runs through Brackmills, Moulton Park, Round Spinney and the newer parks at Swan Valley and along the M1. Retail sits around Abington Street, the Grosvenor Centre and Weston Favell.
Brackmills and Swan Valley are large distribution estates where the stock on the floor frequently belongs to a customer. Moulton Park and Round Spinney carry more trade and manufacturing, where the position is usually much better.
What tends to matter locally
The distinction between a distribution operator and a trader decides everything here. We establish which the tenant is before advising whether an attendance will recover anything.
Northampton town-centre retail has contracted considerably, and arrears there often reflect a business that cannot recover rather than one that is simply late. 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 Northampton 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 Northampton 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.