Recovering commercial rent in Wrexham
Wrexham Industrial Estate is one of the largest in Europe and is the reason most of our north Wales instructions exist. It is manufacturing and distribution property at scale, sitting a few miles from the English border and the Deeside corridor beyond it.
The great majority of the work is on Wrexham Industrial Estate itself and on the Deeside and Sealand estates over the border, with further trade property at Rhosddu and Llay. Retail and leisure sit around Eagles Meadow, Hope Street and the town centre. North Wales beyond Wrexham is served from here, out towards Mold, Ruthin and the coast.
Manufacturing and distribution units are a strong position for taking control of goods, holding stock, racking, tooling and vehicles. The usual caution applies with force at this scale: a great deal of the plant on a Wrexham unit is financed, leased or held under retention of title.
What tends to matter locally
The border matters more here than anywhere else we work. Wrexham Industrial Estate is in Wales; the Deeside estates a short drive away are in England. CRAR is identical across both, so the remedy does not change, but the court venue does, and an instructing solicitor is sometimes working on the wrong assumption about which side a property sits.
Residential letting in Wales has been on a separate footing since the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. It does not affect commercial leases, but it means a mixed-use property on the Welsh side needs looking at carefully before anyone assumes CRAR is available.
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 Wrexham 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 Wrexham 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.