Case Histories and Success Stories
Please click here for a slide-show gallery of photographs of the type of properties and locations I deal with.
Please click an address to show more information
Sainsbury's
are developing a new supermarket in Biddulph,
Staffordshire and hope to start work in
2009-2010.
Part of the site includes a parade of shops, with flats above, where I am acting for two retailers - SW Cotton, Optician at 44/44a High Street, and Morning Fresh greengrocer at 46/46a High Street - in negotiations for surrender of their leases to Sainsbury's, subject to simultaneous leaseback for a few months until vacant possession is required.
For 44/44a I negotiated almost twice as much as Sainsbury's offered originally. For the lease of 46/46a, I negotiated almost three times as much.
Acting
for a retailer in Cheylesmore, Coventry, I arranged
referral of a rent review to an independent expert
and the revised rent was determined
accordingly. (The rent devalues to Zone A £20 which
is now the lowest in the area, as it
happens!)
The Lease requires the tenant to pays all costs of the determination (the expert's fees) if the determination were within 10% of the landlord's proposal, so the expert took it upon himself to determine my Client should pay all costs.
However, what the expert overlooked was a) the proposal was that which had been made at the date of the application to the RICS for the appointment of the expert and b) the expert's role in the procedure did not extend to responsibility for costs. At the date of my application to the RICS, the landlord had not proposed any rent so I reasoned the provision for costs did not apply. Also, I reasoned that apportioning responsibility for costs was a separate issue which was nothing whatsoever to do with the expert. It was an arrangement the parties had agreed would apply after the determination were released and not part of the actual determination process.
Needless to say, the landlord's surveyor did not agree but, because I stuck to my guns the expert found himself in an invidious position, so the landlord said he would obtain legal opinion. Whilst waiting for the lawyers, the landlord' s surveyor sent me a memorandum for my Client to sign to confirm the new rent. I obtained my Client's signature but rather than return the Memorandum to the landlord's surveyor for completion, I said that because the expert's determination on costs was included in the determination the entire determination was invalid pending pending resolution of the costs issue. I emphasized that whereas I was not going to recommend the revised rent should not be agreed, I did not think it should be payable until after the issue of costs was finally disposed of, so if the landlord's legal opinion did not agree with my opinion, I should arrange for my Client's solicitors to apply to the Court for a declaration. However, I went on to say that I should, without prejudice, return the Memorandum for completion and payment of the rent without further ado if the landlord would agree to pay half the expert's costs. The landlord realizing the matter could take months to resolve, not to mention mounting legal costs, duly capitulated.
---
Also in Cheylesmore, instructions include:
123 Daventry Rroad - rent review
141 Daventry Road - lease renewal
187 Daventry Road - rent review
203 Daventry Road - lease renewal
3 Queen Isabel's Avenue - lease renewal
3 Quinton Parade - lease advice
4 Quinton Parade - lease renewal
5 Quinton Parade - lease renewal
8 Quinton Parade - lease advice and rent review
113-115 Quinton Road - rent reviews
Please click here for a slide-show gallery of photographs of the type of properties and locations I deal with.
Please click an address to show more information
1. Biddulph - 44/44a and 46/46a High Street
Part of the site includes a parade of shops, with flats above, where I am acting for two retailers - SW Cotton, Optician at 44/44a High Street, and Morning Fresh greengrocer at 46/46a High Street - in negotiations for surrender of their leases to Sainsbury's, subject to simultaneous leaseback for a few months until vacant possession is required.
For 44/44a I negotiated almost twice as much as Sainsbury's offered originally. For the lease of 46/46a, I negotiated almost three times as much.
2. Cheylesmore, Coventry - 1-2 Quinton Parade
The Lease requires the tenant to pays all costs of the determination (the expert's fees) if the determination were within 10% of the landlord's proposal, so the expert took it upon himself to determine my Client should pay all costs.
However, what the expert overlooked was a) the proposal was that which had been made at the date of the application to the RICS for the appointment of the expert and b) the expert's role in the procedure did not extend to responsibility for costs. At the date of my application to the RICS, the landlord had not proposed any rent so I reasoned the provision for costs did not apply. Also, I reasoned that apportioning responsibility for costs was a separate issue which was nothing whatsoever to do with the expert. It was an arrangement the parties had agreed would apply after the determination were released and not part of the actual determination process.
Needless to say, the landlord's surveyor did not agree but, because I stuck to my guns the expert found himself in an invidious position, so the landlord said he would obtain legal opinion. Whilst waiting for the lawyers, the landlord' s surveyor sent me a memorandum for my Client to sign to confirm the new rent. I obtained my Client's signature but rather than return the Memorandum to the landlord's surveyor for completion, I said that because the expert's determination on costs was included in the determination the entire determination was invalid pending pending resolution of the costs issue. I emphasized that whereas I was not going to recommend the revised rent should not be agreed, I did not think it should be payable until after the issue of costs was finally disposed of, so if the landlord's legal opinion did not agree with my opinion, I should arrange for my Client's solicitors to apply to the Court for a declaration. However, I went on to say that I should, without prejudice, return the Memorandum for completion and payment of the rent without further ado if the landlord would agree to pay half the expert's costs. The landlord realizing the matter could take months to resolve, not to mention mounting legal costs, duly capitulated.
---
Also in Cheylesmore, instructions include:
123 Daventry Rroad - rent review
141 Daventry Road - lease renewal
187 Daventry Road - rent review
203 Daventry Road - lease renewal
3 Queen Isabel's Avenue - lease renewal
3 Quinton Parade - lease advice
4 Quinton Parade - lease renewal
5 Quinton Parade - lease renewal
8 Quinton Parade - lease advice and rent review
113-115 Quinton Road - rent reviews
To contact me, please telephone 01531 631892 or email help@michaellever.co.uk
I look forward to helping you in some way.
Michael Lever