Representation

It was acknowledged from the outset that whilst some tenants and landlords would wish to employ external advisors to assist them in presenting their case to the PIRRS Independent Expert others would prefer for their own reasons to do this themselves.

Whilst not wishing to deviate from the principle that the parties to licensed property transactions should be professionally advised, in practice a percentage of both tenants and landlords do represent themselves in the process and this fact is accepted both by PIRRS and its panel of Independent Experts. The tenants are able to present their knowledge of operating their licensed premises, the income streams and costs involved, the strengths and weaknesses, the types of customer, competition, pricing issues etc.  The landlords are often able to provide more detail of rentals agreed in lettings or rent reviews concerning comparable premises.

It’s important to remember that whereas an Arbitrator can only rule on the evidence placed before him/her the PIRRS Independent Expert has a wider role and bases his/her rental Determination on their own expert perception of what the rental should be in the market place having regard to the various assumptions and disregards the Lease or Tenancy Agreement details.