Recovering commercial rent in Norwich
Norwich is the commercial centre for a large and otherwise rural county, which gives it an unusually broad mix: a substantial independent retail core, a financial services cluster, and distribution property serving the whole of Norfolk.
Retail and leisure run through Gentleman’s Walk, the Lanes, Castle Quarter and Chapelfield. Industrial and trade property sits at Hellesdon, Vulcan Road, Sweet Briar and the Broadland Business Park. Office stock concentrates around the insurance quarter and Broadland.
The Lanes carry small independent retailers holding genuine stock, which makes CRAR effective. The industrial estates north and west of the city carry trade and light manufacturing, generally a strong position for taking control of goods.
What tends to matter locally
Mixed use runs right through the historic core, where upper floors are very often residential. Where a dwelling forms part of the demise, CRAR is unavailable regardless of what the ground floor is used for.
Norfolk beyond Norwich is served from the city, and an attendance at Great Yarmouth or King’s Lynn is planned for a date rather than offered same-day.
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 Norwich 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 Norwich 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.