Recovering commercial rent in Swindon
Swindon is a distribution town on the M4, and the great majority of its commercial arrears concern warehouse, trade and light industrial property rather than shops or offices.
The estates run through Groundwell, Cheney Manor, Dorcan, Blagrove and the newer distribution parks at Symmetry and along the Great Western Way. Retail sits at the Brunel Centre, Regent Street and the designer outlet in the old railway works.
Distribution units hold racking, handling equipment and stock, but on a logistics floor much of that stock belongs to a customer and a good deal of the plant is leased. Manufacturers and trade counters are a considerably better position.
What tends to matter locally
Establish whether the tenant is a logistics operator or a trader before committing to an attendance. In Swindon that distinction decides whether a full warehouse is worth anything to an enforcement agent.
The former railway works site is now largely retail and leisure, and its trading pattern is closer to a shopping centre than a town centre. Arrears there behave differently from those on the estates.
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 Swindon 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 Swindon 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.