Rent reviews are always contentious, but in difficult market conditions, where rental evidence can be difficult to find and interpret, they become especially so. Being able to establish the true detail of nearby transactions, and to apply that to your valuation with proper supported adjustments, can make a substantial difference to the rent that should be agreed.

Our extensive experience of dealing with rent review negotiations, together with in depth market knowledge, a wide network of market contacts and a forensic approach to tracing transaction details gives a strong foundation from which to provide clear advice and to undertake robust negotiations on our clients’ behalf.

Having an RICS Panel Arbitrator and a highly experienced Fellow of the Expert Witness Institute on the team also means that, where the other party acts unreasonably or intransigently, we are able to advise on how best to progress a matter and protect you against costs, doing so from both extensive experience of similar situations and from having the perspective of an arbitrator who is very familiar with actually making these decisions on rent and costs in such cases.

Rent reviews are contentious; lease renewals even more so. Beyond setting rent, there are strict procedures, deadlines, lease length, and terms to settle. Without effective management by a coordinated team, costs can escalate.

Maple Leaf’s experience with lease renewal negotiations for landlords and tenants offers a balanced understanding of rent assessment, market and court perspectives on lease length, achievable lease term changes, and coordinating with clients and solicitors to ensure cost-effective adherence to procedures and deadlines.

Having an RICS panel arbitrator and Expert Witness Institute Fellow on the team, experienced in court representation and arbitration, ensures advice that protects against unnecessary proceedings and costs, especially when faced with uncooperative counterparts.

Our lead surveyor, John Williams, has over 30-years’ experience of retail and commercial rent reviews, lease renewals and interim rent disputes and is a vastly experienced expert witness in both arbitration and court proceedings. He is a certified Expert Witness through the highly prestigious Cardiff University Law School/Bond Solon Expert Witness programme and is a Fellow of the Expert Witness Institute.

Maple Leaf routinely acts for both landlords and tenants, providing expert witness evidence for rent review, lease renewal and dilapidation cases and, due to acting on behalf of both sides, is able to provide a balanced and impartial view which can carry significant weight with any dispute resolver.

As well as acting for individual parties, Maple Leaf can accept instructions as a Single Joint Expert which can save both parties considerable cost and avoid duplication and confusion at trial. If provided at an appropriate point before trail, these impartial joint appointments can introduce a valuable impartial assessment into a case, which can break through entrenched negotiation stances and open a route to a negotiated settlement saving considerable cost on court trials.

It is unfortunately very common at the end of a lease for a property to be returned to a landlord without the necessary repairs or reinstatement having been undertaken by the vacating tenant and this can lead to a complex claim for damages being pursued by a landlord for the loss he suffers as a result.

Whilst the starting point for this claim is the cost of undertaking work there are complex issues of mitigation, supersession and statutory caps that can limit this claim and it is important for both landlords and tenants to properly assess these aspects in accordance with the dilapidations pre-action protocol for such disputes if a sensible resolution without excessive cost is to be reached.

Our lead surveyor, John Williams, has over 25-years’ experience of dealing with dilapidation disputes, assessing both the liability for and cost of works, the loss that actually arises to a landlord, the limits arising from possible mitigation and supersession and the caps that can apply to the claim under the two limbs of Section 18(1) Landlord & Tenant Act 1927.

These claims can be very complex but our step-by-step staged approach, liaising as part of an overall team advising you, means we can present a clear and understandable basis upon which a valid claim arises and would be assessed, whilst keeping costs at a proportionate level for each stage.

It is often wise to begin considering a potential claim well in advance of the end of the lease as this can give rise to alternative strategies to follow to minimise loss incurred or to ensure that full evidence is available to resist an inflated claim by a landlord. Maple Leaf has extensive experience of dealing with such situations working with clients, building surveyors, planning experts and solicitors to put in place strategies to minimise claims where a landlords’ loss can be substantially reduced or to ensure that full evidence is available to support a claim by a landlord where it cannot.

It is often the case that building surveyors can reduce issues of dispute to relatively minor levels of difference and in such cases a Neutral Evaluation, combined with mediation, can resolve a dispute amicably at greatly reduced cost. Maple Leaf has extensive experience of carrying out impartial Neutral Evaluations for disputes, advising the parties jointly on the likely realistic claim that would be allowed by a court and on any grey areas which leave room for negotiation between the parties, usually explored through mediation. This procedure has the considerable advantage of providing an impartial and independent assessment of the two parties’ positions, without being binding upon them and leaving them with the opportunity to continue negotiations for settlement.

In addition, John Williams is an experienced arbitrator in dilapidation cases. He is an RICS President’s Panel arbitrator for such disputes and is also able to accept appointments by agreement to determine dilapidation disputes with legally binding awards.

Our lead surveyor, John Williams, is a qualified arbitrator with a Master’s diploma in Arbitration, is a Fellow the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is a member of the RICS President’s panel of arbitrators for both rent and non-rent disputes. He has extensive experience of arbitrations for rent reviews, lease renewals (rent and lease terms), dilapidations and the disputed exercise of break clauses.

The arbitration process itself provides a more flexible alternative to resolve a dispute than court proceedings, with an arbitrator able to adopt different procedures that suit the dispute, which means that elements of it can be determined in stages that provide a swifter and more cost effective resolution.

Because John operates on a national basis for his own instructions and clients, he is able to accept appointments by agreement to deal with disputes across a range of properties and locations.

As well as appointments as an arbitrator, John can accept appointments as an independent expert.

John also has extensive experience of arbitration proceedings as an expert witness, for which please see the section on Expert Witness Services below.

With ever larger surveying firms, Conflicts of Interest are becoming far more frequent and are becoming increasingly difficult to place with suitably qualified and experienced surveyors. Maple Leaf is ideally placed to accept such instructions and provides a reliable, professional outlet for rent review and lease renewal cases. We are recommended to clients by a number of national surveying practices and are recognised as a safe pair of hands that the client is able to rely on but which will not represent a threat to a larger portfolio instruction