Recovering commercial rent in Southampton
Southampton is a port city, and the port shapes the commercial property around it. A large share of the industrial and distribution stock exists to serve the docks, which makes it a strong market for taking control of goods and, at the same time, the market where ownership of those goods is least likely to be straightforward.
Industrial and distribution property runs through Nursling, Millbrook, the Western Docks estates and out along the M27 towards Eastleigh and Totton. Office stock sits around Ocean Village, Cumberland Place and the civic centre. Retail and leisure concentrate on Above Bar, WestQuay and Oxford Street, with further parades through Portswood and Shirley serving the student population.
A distribution unit near the docks will usually hold a great deal: pallets, containers, handling equipment, vehicles. Very little of it is likely to belong to the tenant. Freight held for a customer, goods under retention of title, plant on hire: none of that can be taken into control, and establishing what can takes a conversation before the attendance, not at the gate.
What tends to matter locally
Port logistics is the hardest ownership question in commercial enforcement. Where a tenant is a freight forwarder, a customs agent or a third-party logistics operator, the working assumption should be that almost nothing on the floor is theirs. We will look at the arrangement before advising whether an attendance is worth paying for.
The student-facing retail through Portswood and Shirley has a trading year that does not match the rent quarters, and arrears that look terminal in July often clear by December. That is worth knowing before a notice goes out.
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 Southampton 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 Southampton 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.