November 2024.

The matter comprised a rent review of a 13,000 sqft brewery in an estate close to Newcastle City Centre. The brewery also included a ‘tap house’ and offices over two levels.

Following the landlord’s service of a rent review notice at (in our opinion) an unreasonably high figure, negotiations did not provide a satisfactory resolution to either party. Therefore, the matter was referred to a third party acting as an independent expert to determine the market rent based upon comparable evidence and guided by the lease provisions.

Lexicon CRE advised the Tenant Lanchester Wines, t/a Full Circle Brew Company in the negotiations, including providing expert witness opinion on the rent and a counter submission commenting on the Landlord’s evidence. The Landlord was seeking a rent increase of 68%. We provided a detailed market analysis to evidence of the reason for refuting the Landlord’s proposal. The result was that the rent increase was restricted to 17% which represented a considerably lower increase than proposed.

Ben Cleary, Founder of Full Circle commented:

It was an absolute joy to work alongside David on our rental discussions with our landlord which turned out to be very stressful and complicated. David went above and beyond to ensure he covered every possible area of the site and its competition and also advised with clarity and great knowledge as to what we do at each turn of the negotiation. He was professional, very communicative and patient in explaining the process at each stage. I will be recommending him to anyone who has similar contractual struggles in the future with their landlords.