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Landlord’s shock on receivership news

IN mid-2018 an Administrator was appointed to wind up an engineering company who occupied 8,000 square feet by way of two business tenancy leases on adjoining properties on Linnell Way in Kettering. The Administrator immediately disclaimed the leases.

When the landlord took back possession, it was clear that the previous occupying tenant had removed all services (water, gas, electricity) from one of the two units in order to save money on the standing charges. Consent for this was never requested from the landlord and would certainly not have been granted.

The landlord instructed Budworth Hardcastle to resolve the issues on the services and find tenants. Provision of new services to a building is not straightforward (particularly if the previous occupier owes money to the utility companies). Budworth Hardcastle’s Property Management and Facilities Division were able to engage with the utility companies and deliver independent services to one of the two units within a record breaking three months.

Jason Ghayour, Facilities Manager at the firm said: “We organised private contractors to do as much of the work as possible but were reliant on the utility companies for connections etc. The process is not cheap and we always advise landlords to carry out regular inspections of their properties to ensure that tenants are not making material alterations without securing the necessary consent of the landlord.”

With the services fully operational, the agency side of Budworth Hardcastle were instructed to find tenants for the two units.

One unit was let to Twinbusch, a German-based engineering company specialising in vehicle lifts and testing equipment for the automotive industry. The other unit was let subsequently to BED Electrical Distributors, a regionally based wholesaler of electric products. Kettering represents the sixth branch of this expanding trade counter operator.

Gilbert Harvey a Director of the property consultants completed the deals. He said: “These clear span units with large forecourts were always going to be attractive to occupiers. It did though come as a shock when we discovered at the outset that one of the buildings was deprived of all services. Our colleagues in the property management/facilities side were able to rectify this and the buildings now offer a solid rental income to the landlord from two very strong tenants.”

Budworth Hardcastle operate from a network of offices across the region offering agency, lease advisory, property management and building consultancy services.

For further information contact Budworth Hardcastle on 01536 483400.

Companies mentioned in this article

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