News and Notices

Meeting and Dinner, Friday 11 November 2011
Crypt of St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place, London

The Association of Valuers of Licensed Property held its Winter Dinner on Friday, 11 November 2011 at the Crypt of St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place, Holborn Circus, London EC1.

During the afternoon members and guests attended a very interesting presentation by David Jones of David Jones Accountants Limited of Wetherby, Yorkshire. David explained details relating to the preparation of public house trading and profit and loss accounts and financial statements.

Mark Jenkins of Messrs G W Cooper & Co presided as the Chairman for the evening dinner and 67 members and guests attended to support Mr Jenkins’ evening in the chair. The health of the Chairman was proposed by Patricia White, a former partner with J & W Johnson but now retired and a toast to the guests was made by Martin Collins of A W Gore & Co. This was followed by a response on behalf of the guests by Steve Alsford of Alsford & Co, licensed trade accountants. The Honourable Social Secretary Keith Gregory proposed a toast to the Vice Chairman, Jeremy Beeching.

The entertainer for the evening was Jed Stone who has appeared many times on TV and radio including 'the New Comedians', 'Joker in the Pack' with Marti Caine and with Des O’Connor and Michael Barrymore.

The next Association Dinner will be held at the Aztec Hotel, Almondsbury, Bristol on Friday, 2 March 2012 when Jeremy Beeching of Messrs Scott Burridge Commercial will take the chair.

AVLP Press Release – March 2011 – New Inventory Dispute Procedure and Panel of Independent Expert Valuers

The Association of Valuers of Licensed Property has recently revised the procedure for appointing an independent expert valuer in cases where a dispute arises as a result of failure to agree an inventory valuation.

The Honorary Secretary of the Association, Bob Whittle, said that this revision has been necessary because the customary procedures relating to tenancy changes have been diluted over the last 20 or so years. The main document that protects both the tenant and the pubco/brewery company is the Tenancy Agreement. Virtually all brewery agreements used to make provision for disputes relating to the tenant’s inventory and also placed restrictions on the tenant’s right to sell or dispose of articles specified in the tenant’s inventory. Tenancy agreements used to refer to the appointment of two valuers and the appointment of an independent expert in the event of a dispute between the parties.

However, many modern tenancy agreements no longer include a procedure for resolving inventory valuation disputes.

The appointment of an independent expert is a rare occurrence - less than 5% of cases are referred. There have been recent problems. An ingoing tenant refused to agree to the procedure leading to stalemate. With no contract in place either with the brewery company or with his valuer, the proposed ingoing tenant, in essence, controlled the negotiations by the very fact that he could walk away without suffering any consequences as a result of doing so.

Conversely an outgoing tenant refused to accept the decision of an independent expert. If a dispute procedure had been included in the tenancy agreement then the problem could have been resolved.

In order to prevent such situations occurring in the future all AVLP members have agreed to adhere to the following:

When two valuers cannot agree the settlement of an inventory valuation they must advise their respective clients of the procedure to solve the dispute, ie to jointly appoint an independent expert valuer. The valuers must make their clients aware of the exact costs including the extra fees of the IEV and that the IEV’s determination will be binding on all parties.

If either the vendor or purchaser refuses to accept this course of action then the two valuers must adhere jointly to the agreed procedure and inform their clients and the landlord (usually the pubco or brewery company) that the change cannot proceed unless both parties agree to accept the dispute procedure.

The Association has also set up a Panel of Independent Expert Valuers. In future the two valuers in dispute will appoint an independent expert valuer from the Panel. If the two valuers are unable to agree on the appointment then the decision will be made by either the President or the Hon. Secretary of the Association.

Founded in 1894 the Association of Valuers of Licensed Property is the leading body in the United Kingdom providing specialist property advice to the licensed leisure industry.

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