Recovering commercial rent in North West London
North West London runs from Camden’s retail and leisure market, through the Kilburn and Cricklewood high streets, out to the industrial estates around Willesden, Park Royal and Wembley. Two very different kinds of arrears case, and they need handling differently.
Camden Town, Chalk Farm and Hampstead produce hospitality, retail and creative-sector work: bars, restaurants, market units and studio space. The Kilburn High Road, Cricklewood Broadway and Wembley High Road carry independent retail. The NW10 industrial belt through Willesden, Harlesden and the northern half of Park Royal carries trade, wholesale, logistics and light manufacturing.
Hospitality in Camden holds fit-out and stock and is usually worth pursuing. The industrial estates hold plant and goods and are usually worth pursuing. Creative and studio occupiers frequently hold neither, because the equipment is hired and the space comes furnished.
The procedure itself, from the Notice of Enforcement to the sale of goods, is set out on our page on commercial rent arrears recovery. If CRAR may not suit your tenant in North West London, our guide to how to recover commercial rent arrears sets it beside forfeiture, a money claim and a statutory demand.
What tends to matter locally
Licences rather than leases are common in the Camden studio and market space, and a licence to occupy will not support CRAR. Establishing which one the occupier holds is the first thing we do, because it decides whether the remedy exists at all.
On the industrial side, goods on hire purchase, lease or retention of title cannot be taken into control, and on an NW10 trade unit that can account for most of what is on site. Knowing that before attending is the difference between a productive visit and a wasted one.
Mixed use runs through the high streets here as it does across North London: a shop with flats above is outside CRAR entirely if the dwelling forms part of the demise.
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 North West London we plan it around the occupier’s hours rather than our own, and we will say honestly whether a visit is likely to achieve anything before you pay for one.
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 identical across 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.