By Andrew Kilpatrick BSc FRICS ACIArb IRRV, Partner of Thompsons

Almost anyone who has leased commercial property will be accustomed to having their financial credentials scrutinised by their prospective landlord before being allowed into occupation under a lease. This usually involves the prospective tenant providing references from existing landlords, accountants, solicitors and their bank and often 3 years audited accounts to their prospective landlord, all taking time and cost, whilst solicitors finalise the fine wording of the lease contract. There is nothing wrong with this as understandably, the landlord needs to be reassured that a prospective tenant is financially able to honour the commitments it is about to enter into under the lease to pay rent, service charge, carry out repairs (etc) in the landlord's property, whilst tenant. Few tenants ever have the opportunity to investigate their landlord in the same way.

However, now, a new initiative by the British Property Federation is aiming to redress the balance, with the launch of its Commercial Landlord Accreditation Scheme (CLAS). The move comes with the recognition by enlightened landlords that tenants are customers and need to be nurtured and retained, particularly in tricky economic/trading conditions, says Andrew Kilpatrick of Thompsons. The CLAS has five key points for landlords to adhere to, including promoting CLAS, abiding by the recently relaunched Leasing Business Premises Code (see my article in June's Wiltshire Business) and having a written complaints procedure allowing direct contact between tenant and landlord. The CLAS is open to all landlords, large and small and already has Government support as well as that of a number of large institutional landlords. Much more is likely to be heard of this new initiative over the coming months.

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