Recovering commercial rent in South London
South London is not one market but several, and the difference between them decides what enforcement can achieve. Croydon is an office centre on the scale of a mid-sized city in its own right. The riverside from Bankside through Vauxhall to Battersea is high-value mixed development. And the Purley Way, Charlton and Bermondsey corridors carry the trade and industrial stock that actually holds goods worth taking.
Office arrears come from central Croydon, Bankside and Southwark, and the newer riverside stock at Nine Elms and Battersea. Retail and leisure sit along the Purley Way retail parks, Bromley High Street, Clapham and Balham, Greenwich and Peckham. Industrial and trade property concentrates at Charlton, Bermondsey, Beddington and the Purley Way corridor.
The contrast is stark. A Charlton trade unit holds stock, plant and vehicles. A Croydon office suite usually holds almost nothing that belongs to the tenant, because the fit-out is the landlord’s and the equipment is leased. We will tell you which you have before you pay for an attendance.
What tends to matter locally
Mixed use is the recurring obstacle across the South London high streets. A shop with flats above is outside CRAR entirely where the dwelling forms part of the demise, and a great deal of the stock along Bromley, Clapham, Balham and Peckham is exactly that. What governs is the demise in the lease, not what the building looks like from the pavement.
Croydon needs its own note. A large share of its office space is now serviced or managed, and an occupier holding a licence rather than a lease is outside CRAR altogether. That is worth establishing on day one rather than at the reception desk.
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 South 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.