Recovering commercial rent in Preston
Preston is the administrative and commercial centre of Lancashire, sitting on the M6 and M55 with a substantial distribution and manufacturing base around it.
Industrial and trade property runs through Bamber Bridge, Walton Summit, Red Scar and the Docklands estates, with distribution parks out towards Leyland and the motorway. Retail sits around Fishergate and the St George’s Centre. Office stock is concentrated in the city centre and Winckley Square.
The Lancashire estates carry manufacturing, trade counters and wholesale, which is a strong position for taking control of goods. Aerospace and engineering suppliers in the area are the exception: their tooling is usually financed or belongs to a customer.
What tends to matter locally
Where a tenant supplies the aerospace sector, treat the ownership question as open until the agreements answer it. That is a bigger share of Lancashire industry than most landlords realise.
Preston city-centre retail has held up better than many comparable cities, and arrears there are more often a cash-flow problem than a terminal one. That usually favours a notice over an attendance.
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 Preston 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 Preston 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.