Recovering commercial rent across South Wales
Most of South Wales sits within an hour of the other: Newport twelve miles from Cardiff, Pontypridd twelve, Bridgend twenty, Merthyr twenty-four, Swansea forty. That matters less than landlords expect, because the compliance stage runs from the office wherever the property is, but it matters a great deal on the day an attendance is needed, and it is the reason we do not sub-contract Welsh work out.
A good share of our Welsh instructions come from the industrial and trade estates rather than the high street: Treforest, one of the largest industrial estates in Wales, Queensway Meadows and Spytty in Newport, Waterton in Bridgend, Baglan in Neath Port Talbot, Swansea Enterprise Park at Llansamlet, and Cross Hands and Dafen out towards Llanelli. Retail and leisure work clusters in the city centres and in Cardiff Bay and SA1.
The distinction is not academic. A unit on a trade estate usually holds stock, vehicles and plant, which gives a far stronger position for taking control of goods than a serviced office with three desks and a photocopier on lease. We will say so before you instruct us rather than after.
What tends to matter in Wales
CRAR itself is identical in Wales and England: the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 applies across both, and there is no separate Welsh enforcement procedure. Two things do differ, and clients instructing from England are regularly caught out by them.
The first is that residential letting in Wales has been on a different statutory footing since the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 came into force, which replaced assured shorthold tenancies with occupation contracts. That does not touch commercial leases, but it does mean a mixed-use property in Wales needs looking at carefully before anyone assumes CRAR is available, and CRAR is not available at all where any part of the premises is let as a dwelling.
The second is the court. Welsh proceedings go through the Welsh registries rather than an English one, and an instructing solicitor in Bristol or Birmingham will sometimes have issued in the wrong place before they reach us.
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 we plan it around the occupier’s hours rather than our own, and we say honestly beforehand whether a visit is likely to achieve anything.
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 Swansea or Merthyr as they are in London.
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.