Pub Companies - Business and Enterprise Committee Contents


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.





 
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