Experience and Expertise
2 May 2026(2026-May: LinkedIn) It is said that surveyors that specialise in rent review have a deeper understanding of business tenancy law than most. So using that knowledge for something other than rent review makes sense. Hence, I specialise in rent review and business tenancy advice.
“And business tenancy advice” is a wider field than just rent review. For example, service charges. I’m advising in a unusual dispute between two unrelated freeholders. A owns the property, B (for whom I am acting) has to pay a fair proportion of the cost of the services provided for the shared part of the A’s property. The dispute is about the value for money of work undertaken by contractors instructed by A’s managing agents.
I am advising the landlord on the apportionment for keeping the building and main structure wind and water tight. Researching case law for the meaning of ‘wind and water tight’ reminds many variations to the word ‘repair’. I found a case about a hedge between two fields and whose obligation to maintain the hedge where there is no documentary evidence: another ruling for my collection of might come in handy one day. From that collection something that has proved useful on numerous occasions is the word ‘condition’ as in “in good and substantial repair and condition” – more than mere repair.
Where a lease requires the landlord’s consent for alterations to be in writing, what happens at rent review, where a disregard is tenant’s improvements not in pursuance of an obligation to the landlord, if the tenant has altered the premises without any documentary consent and the landlord at the time has since deceased?
You might think these are the sort of questions best answered by a solicitor and/or barrister and often I think so too. The client knows they’ll get better value from me, my fees more reasonable. So where I know I can help I accept the instruction. On service charges, I have ample experience to act as expert witness, but don’t set out to attract instructions because service charge disputes are fiddly so for me the deciding factor whether to tackle the task is the client’s ability to pay regardless. As for how to calculate the proportion where the lease does not stipulate a percentage, Rateable Value proportion is problematic where part of the building is residential and RV inapplicable.
Second opinions – in the past two years I have advised on 4 single joint expert witness opinions by chartered surveyors. I wish I could say they were up to scratch but all fell short, three by a long way.
I had a go at Rateable Values and reduced some for a multiple retailer where the client’s regular surveyors hadn’t reduced as far as I did – I suggested to the client the reason being that the rating surveyors couldn’t be bothered to fight to the last because the extra fees weren’t worthwhile. But after the rules changed and overcoming the VOA’s deterrent became for me invincible without know-how, I gave approximately 25 instructions to specialist chartered surveyors.
Return to Article