Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Inez Ward
I have received no contact from the BII or Mr
John McNamara whatsoever, then again I am not surprised, nearly
a year ago Mr Robert Feal-Martinez sent my case and a case for
Punch Taverns to Mr John McNamara for breaches of Codes of Practice
and he never received a reply. I feel that the BII cannot and
will not involve themselves in areas of dispute with the pubcos
and feel that this could be due to the large revenues that the
BII receive from the pubcos for the BII training packages. If
the BII earn revenue from the pubcos then surely there has to
be some conflict of interest when disputes between tenant and
landlord arise?
The latest update of my predicament/situation
is not good. Enterprise Inns have started the rent review and
there has been a reduction, however the reduction achieved does
not portray a fair rent. A formal offer has been put to Enterprise
Inns by Mr David Morgan for a rent of £24,000.00, we are
both of the opinion that this is not the true rental value for
Mavericks. Enterprise Inns have failed to supply either myself
or David with any evidence by way of comparability that supports
the company's view of Fair Maintainable Trade. We have had no
choice other than to reach this decision as the current rent is
strangling the business and there are no finances to even consider
arbitration. If I could afford to I would take it to arbitration,
unfortunately that is not an option.
The recession has hit hard, not just for myself
but for many businesses, I am sure that this would be hard to
refute. In light of this I have again asked Enterprise Inns for
help, they touched on the subject of the Business Recovery Scheme
(not forgetting that it was this scheme which led to the disputes
last year and the ensuing heart attack) I asked by RM that if
I could prove categorically that the proposed scheme of last year
was of more benefit to Enterprise Inns than it was to Mavericks
would they consider changing the terms. The answer no, some fair
and equitable partnership. The other offers of help from my RM
was to do a march through Newquay along the lines of Gordon Ramsey
and the kitchen nightmares tv programme and he could get me a
council house by evicting me, both ideas I was not impressed with
for obvious reasons. No wonder I feel so angry when I read press
releases of how much Enterprise Inns are helping their tenants,
the help they are professing is the Business Recovery Scheme!
If you want the information on the Business Recovery Scheme I
will gladly send it over.
The stress and work hours have increased to
unsustainable levels so my health is deteriorating, I have considered
surrendering the lease but the cons of that action far outweighed
the pros. If you would like to see this document, again I will
gladly send it over, even the RM was in agreement in the main.
We have cut all costs to an absolute bare minimum, again a fact
that the RM was in agreement on. We do not draw a wage from the
business and are in receipt of full tax credits, the majority
of which goes to Enterprise Inns or business bills. In the last
12 months the business has turned over £128,829 net and we
have paid to Enterprise Inns £89,427 which equate to 70%
of net turnover. We run continual customer surveys to ensure that
the customers are happy and are running at a 98% success rate.
So the situation, without trying to sound too melodramatic is
probably going to be bankruptcy unless my health goes first.
Ted Tuppen has full knowledge of the situation,
in fact it is one of the reasons that Enterprise Inns have taken
the stance they have with myself because I involved the whole
organisation, although just recently they are saying that I am
an un-compliant tenant because I have not fulfilled the terms
of the contract, by which they mean I have not paid the rent,
which is neither fair or maintainable. They are also being quite
forceful in their opinion that I am not being discriminated against,
which makes it even worse that they treat everybody like this,
do they have no morals or corporate social responsibility? I find
it amusing that there was this change in opinion of how they viewed
me as un-compliant tenant after they realized that there was an
enquiry! Personally I don't think they like it if anybody has
the temerity to stand up to them, even when they are blatantly
wrong, they are no more than greedy bullies. So they have breached
their Codes of Practice, they have breached their contract, amongst
everything else and there is absolutely nothing I can do about
any of it.
|