Shop Comparable Evidence Service – update 5
18/09/2025Sep 2025. Comparable Evidence site update. I don't know how others do their websites - unless I'm told - but I've always done the look...
Shop Comparable Evidence Service – feedback 4
09/09/2025My website developer, having designed to my specification an accelerated search filter for my Law Library site, we are adapting it for the Comparable Evidence...
Statement of Agreed Facts and Comparable Evidence
02/09/2025Sep 2025. On referral and in the process of agreeing a Statement of Agreed Facts, it appears - in my experience - to be taken...
VOA areas and rent review
30/08/2025Aug 2025. VOA areas and rent review. In many places, and often contrary to what is on-line, the VOA zoning methodology is not 6.1m/6.1m/6.1m (20'/20'/20')....
Shop Comparable Evidence Service – feedback 3
22/08/2025Aug 2025. I've registered the domain: comparableevidence.comTo begin with, I've asked my site developer to launch a site modelled on the appearance and layout of...
Shop Comparable Evidence Service – feedback 1
19/08/2025Aug 2025. According to LinkedIn, the analysis for response so far is 42% London area, and companies including CBRE, Savills, RICS. Interestingly, the RICS is...
Shop Comparable Evidence Service – feedback 2
Aug 2025 - I’ve been checking Costar UK figures and claims. I daresay someone from C will correct if this is wrong. C’s accounts for...
Shop Comparable Evidence Service
17/08/2025Aug 2025. On LinkedIn i posted this disruptive idea. For sourcing comparable evidence, there are many sources amongst which Costar considers itself a leader. However,...
Shop investment: direct or indirect?
14/08/2025Aug 2025. Shop investment: direct or indirect? Direct is owning the property, indirect is a shareholder. Which is better depends upon judicious choice.For direct ownership,...
The River Island Saga
11/08/2025Aug 2025. The River Island saga is a stark reminder of the risk run when large landlords relax their investment policies that they apply to...
Independent Expert – getting your money’s worth
04/08/2025Aug 2025. In my experience, RICS-appointed Independent Experts fall in one of two categories. (1) Conscientious - by which I mean the IE will measure...
Open market rent
26/07/2025Jul 2025 Sometimes I tell landlord-clients that, despite the rent review to open market rent, it's unlikely they'll get it. Instead, they'll get a rent...
Outside LTA54 and upward/downward rent review
18/07/2025Jul 2025 - Although Bill 2025 applies to rent reviews in leases outside the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, more leases granted outside LTA54 is...
“…perhaps the boldest intervention in leasing practice in a generation.”
Jul 2025 - It's rare for me to include an article on RRM written by someone else but I think the following is excellent. So,...
Up in arms!
17/07/2025Jul 2025 - Inevitably, the powerful landlord lobby - institutional investors, pension funds, insurance companies, REITS, quoted and major property companies, their advisers, and likely...
Upward only rent review – the end is nigh!
16/07/2025Jul 2025 - 1.0 Buried deep within the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill 2025 published on 11 July 2025 ("Bill 2025") is, in the...
Retail ambassadors
15/07/2025July 2025. I have just found out that a well-known firm of surveyors has re-hired someone whose reputation is awful. I doubt I am the...
Rack rent, open market rent, and fairs
05/07/2025Jul 2025 - For continuing professional development, Ii was reading about an Act of June 1657 "Annoyance by Buildings.; Fines for Houses built on new...
Creepy?
01/07/2025Jul 2025 - Creepy? When you stop to think about it, the RICS is like an episode of Dr Who where an alien beast has...
Customer Service
30/06/2025Jun 2025 - Complain… is not something I do very often. Mostly, there's nothing much to complain about. Specialising in rent review enables considering holistically,...
Enjoying the heat wave?
29/06/2025Jun 2025 - I am, so much so that since the start of the year I've worn 4 layers of clothing on my upper body,...
Independent Expert Determination on Rent Review
24/06/2025Jun 2025 - On referral, win most, lose a few; fair enough when the third party is someone who knows what he/she is talking about....
Research reports
20/06/2025Jun 2025 - Hardly a week goes by when yet another report is published on some aspect of the market, trends, and so on. Sometimes...
Statutory Interpretation
Jun 2025 - In Darwall and another v Dartmoor National park authority 2025, a ruling by the Supreme Court about the public's right to camp...
Buy to Let
18/06/2025Jun 2025 - Key Flats was the public name of the London and County Freehold and Leasehold Properties Company Ltd, a residential property landlord, incorporated...
Brent Cross Shopping Centre
17/06/2025Jun 2025 - News that Hammerson have bought Standard Life's (Abrdn) 95% interest in the Brent Cross Shopping Centre in NW London and are now...
What’s the catch?
Jun 2025 - In July 2003, Allsop auction, Lot 34, Mr X bought a shop investment 52/54 High Street, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. An attractive prominent building...
Tenants v Landlords
28/05/2025May 2025 - A silent war is raging between tenants and landlords.This commercial purpose of a rent review, according to British Gas Corporation v Universities...
Non-Structural Alterations
23/05/2025May 2025 - For pre-contract enquiries, nowadays known as Commercial Property Standard Enquiries, “CPSE” for short, any temptation to answer most with ‘no’, or ‘not known’,...
Bad bargain
01/05/2025May 2025 - Currently, I am acting for the landlord of a property whose upward-only review is to the greater of the market rent and...
Director – legal status or pretentious title for an over-rated position?
24/03/2025Mar 2025 - A director (according to Practical Law) is "a person elected by the members of a company or otherwise appointed to superintend the...
Dispute resolution procedure at rent review
26/02/2016Feb 2016 - At rent review, the phrase 'going to arbitration' is often bandied about during negotiations as a means for one party to get...
Demise
01/01/2014A “demise” or “lease” is the grant of a right to the exclusive possession of land for a determinate term less than that which the...
Tenancy Expiry and renewal – Some Pitfalls
01/12/2013Dec 2013 - On expiry of a business tenancy that qualifies for renewal rights per the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II, (“LTA54”), and...
Purpose of Rent Review
Dec 2013 - The purpose of rent review is threefold: 1) to enable the landlord to review the rent payable; 2) ...
Procedure for review
Dec 2013 - The starting point for operation of a rent review is some form of notice. The form and phrasing of the notice, the...
Negotiation – restoring the balance of power
Dec 2013 - Notwithstanding Reed Personnel Services plc v American Express Ltd [1996] wherein the court said it is “not good for the tenant to...
Important – Take Notice
Dec 2013 - Amongst the many aspects of my work I love is lease analysis. Possibly it’s the same reason many people enter the legal...
Guarantor v Rent Deposit
Dec 2013 - Where a tenant is a company and the landlord requires a director as guarantor or a rent deposit, that person is exposed...
Five Key Dates
Dec 2013 - For purpose of agreeing or determining a rent, there are five key dates: 1) the review date;2) the valuation date;3) the earliest...
Business Rates
Dec 2013 - The Government has announced that the five-yearly revaluation of all commercial properties in England will be postponed from 2015 to 2017. Every...
Mixed User Buildings and Service Charges
25/06/2013Jun 2013 - When a building comprises ground floor commercial premises let on a business tenancy, and upper part residential flat sold on a long...
Privity of Contract and Authorised Guarantee Agreement
04/02/2013Feb 2013 - It is an established rule of English law that a person can only enforce a contract if he (or she) is a...
Letting a Tenant off the Hook
23/01/2013Jan 2013 - With a business tenancy, agreeing the documentation is rarely straightforward at the best of times so, unless the lease contains a tenant–break,...
High Street carnage
01/09/2012Sep 2012 - All this carnage on the High Street must be causing problems for internet companies – where are people going to go in...
Buyers of property to let less deserving of protection
01/06/2011Jun 2011 - Per Scullion v Bank of Scotland plc (t/a Colleys) [2011] the Court of Appeal has overturned the High Court decision that for...
Good time to invest?
01/09/2009Sep 2009 - It seems to me there are a growing number of people thinking to themselves now seems like a good time to invest...
Recession: a time for transformation
01/06/2009Jun 2009 - As I say time and again, essentially, a problem is a fault in direction which, when left to its own devices, may...
A rare opportunity for landlords
Jun 2009 - Now the credit-crunch has settled, landlords have a rare, possibly unique, opportunity to determine the future of retailing, for good. As I...
Rent Review – Time of the Essence
01/03/2009Mar 2009 - Acting for a trustee of a restaurant property in East London, I was instructed to advise and take over negotiations for a...
Pre-pack Administration
Mar 2009 - My letter published in Estates Gazette, March 2009:“Whilst I agree with Anthony Ratcliffe there seems precious little difference between “phoenix” company and “pre-packs”,...
Rising property costs
01/12/1999Dec 1999 - In the open market, some retailers, for whatever reason, can afford to pay suppliers - ie, landlords - more rent than others....
Reducing Property Costs
01/06/1999Jun 1999 - Socially, “win-win” as a means of avoiding or diffusing argument is useful as a catalyst but, at rent review, I regard it...
A Problem Shared is a Problem Doubled
11/06/1998June 1998. Retailing is a commitment to uncertainty. A long-term business plan is rarely straightforward. Anticipated events can be avoided, difficulties can reflect specific situations,...
Conflicts of Interest
10/09/1985Sep 1985. In a period of 'retailing revolution', one wonders how advisers to pension funds can be so confident that the rate of growth essential...
What is professional advice?
01/06/1985Jun 1985 - The role of the valuer, at a rent review or lease renewal, is to argue for his client's best interests and for...
Rental value and yield
Jun 1985 - The current trend for private investors in the retail market to be more concerned with short-term gain than long-term income is worrying....
Supermarkets Visited
Jun 1985 - Thinking I was immune from advertising, my first trip to what has now become my local grocers was to satisfy professional curiosity...
Conflict of Interest
Jun 1985 - In a period of ‘retailing revolution,’ one wonders how advisers to pension funds can be so confident that the rate of growth...
Yield and Pricing
Jun 1985 - The current trend for private investors in the retail market to be more concerned with short term gain than long term income...
Point of Law
Jun 1985 - In Shirlcar Properties Ltd v Heinitz & Another [1982], the Court stated stated that use of the expression ‘subject to contract’ did...
Advertising
01/12/1984Dec 1984 - Now that solicitors (and accountants) are allowed to advertise, it is interesting to observe how a professional group responds to the challenge....
The Future for Secondary Shops
Dec 1984 - The historic development of shopping centres makes fascinating reading. Originally, as people went to market, so came permanent shops. In the post-war...
Company News
Dec 1984 - It cannot come as much surprise to learn that Motorist Discount Centre, with some 300 shops selling motor accessories, has gone into...
Research or Gut-Feeling?
Dec 1984 - In an increasingly complex economy, research is rapidly intruding upon the traditional province of the valuer: gut feeling. The mixing bowl, into...
December 1984 – No.2
Dec 1984 - Thank you for your kind comments about the first issue of 'QC.'Activity in the property year always seems to be squeezed into...
Warning Signs
03/09/1984Sep 1984 - News is coming through that the banks are tightening up on their lending to Asian buyers for grocery businesses. Asians tend to...
September 1984 – No.1
01/09/1984Sep 1984 - Many people know that I am a regular contributor to the correspondence columns, so circulating a commentary of this nature to Clients...
Welcome
Sep 1984 - In 1984, I launched a newsletter for clients and contacts. I titled it Quarterly Commentary, later renamed Current Review and subsequently Rent...