What we do

Commercial

Representing commercial landlords and investors

The commercial property sector contributes a significant amount to the economy, employing millions of people and contributing over £45bn to the Exchequer. Fundamental to this success is the maintenance of a good relationship between our landlord members and their occupiers.

To further and improve the relationship between landlords and occupiers we are active in the following areas:

We played an important role in the production of a succession of lease codes, which encourage best practice in the creation of commercial leases.Many of our members have adopted, and use, the code and have joined our Commercial Landlords Accreditation Scheme (CLAS). We also collect information on the terms (lengths) of leases.

We provide a forum for landlords and retail occupiers to discuss issues of concern. In recent years, one of the hottest issues has been whether occupiers can pay their rents on a monthly, rather than quarterly, basis. Service charges can be another bone of contention, and we actively support measures to lower costs and improve transparency. Proactively, we support a number of industry initiatives to encourage best practice in customer service.

The recession has hit a lot of retail businesses hard, and a number have gone into administration or have taken steps to reduce the number of shop units they occupy. This obviously has an impact on our landlord members, who are keen to minimise the consequences of insolvency on their businesses.

Climate change is increasing the risk of flooding, which can affect commercial as well as residential properties. Insuring against such a risk is becoming increasingly costly, and is a concern of our members.

These issues are considered by our members at our Commercial Committee and Insurance Committee.