September 21 2009
There have not been many evenings of the past couple weeks were I have switched on the television or radio and not listened to a news report of another UK retailer or manufacturer going into Administration.
Administration is a legal and legitimate act that prevents landlords and bailiffs from commencing or continuing with an action against a tenant, without either leave of the court or the consent of the administrator.
Over the past 12 months we have seen a number of well known and established high street names disappear and seemingly the Christmas trade did little to encourage the markets that 2010 will be any better. In fact we are told by our newly appointed government that the country's recovery rate is a lot slower than previously reported. Projected more pain and hard times for consumers it seems coupled with more businesses having to face the reality of closing their doors for the last time as our national shop keepers struggle to re-build confidence in the UK high street and industrial markets.
Arguably good times for the enforcement industry you would presume? Yes and no really I suppose is the answer with constant talk of the Credit Crunch, perhaps the pendulum has swung too far for some landlords? Not surprisingly some commercial landlords have had to re-think their rent collection process and in some areas avoid taking their normal recovery action route in order to keep tenants in-occupation and trading.
The clever thing about statistics is that you can create a positive or a negative, but certainly one statistic that is evident - the increasing number of tenants seeking assistance and payment-plans with their landlords.
As a proactive dynamic commercial service-support business, we are constantly working hard to provide clients with immediate collection solutions. At dbs we've developed a Protective Distraint Recovery Programme. The process is designed to provide a pre-enforcement bespoke recovery platform geared to the issuing of Protective Distraints and ring-fencing tenants from facing additional enforcement proceedings by other creditors.
The actual definition of Protective Distraint is the securing and impounding of the tenants' assets giving the landlord priority title during an agreed repayment-plan period managed at no cost to the landlord by dbs. Under the terms of the Walking Possession agreement the tenant's goods remain on the demise premises during the payment term enabling the business to trade with minimum interruption and disruption. The action does not attract any interest charges to the tenant and the daily fixed fee is 80 pence.
With constant talk of our UK debt and unemployment our new Government must now look ahead and plan to deliver effective and stronger policies in 2010. It is, I believe, a reasonable and realistic statement to make when I say the high street and industrial estates have a long and difficult way to go yet before we stop the talk of financial meltdown.