The PCA has published a table which sets out how tied tenants can access their Pubs Code rights when the period covered by the Covid emergency declaration ends on the 30 June 2020.
Pubs Code rights have been paused and protected during the Covid emergency period by stopping the clock on many of them. The ending of the declaration period on 30 June means that tenants now need to know when they must act to activate their Code rights, for example to request and receive a Market Rent Only (MRO) option or to obtain a Rent Assessment Proposal due under the Code.
Fiona Dickie, Pubs Code Adjudicator, said: “The opportunity to reopen their pubs will bring a range of challenges for tied tenants. So it needs to be as clear as possible what their Pubs Code rights are and what they need to do to access them. To provide that clarity the PCA has produced a table setting out the effect of the declaration on Pubs Code rights, including the deadlines that now apply to tenants pursuing them.
It is now more important than ever that tied tenants are free to exercise these rights as Parliament intended, and that pub-owning businesses demonstrate the Pubs Code principles of fairness and transparency in all dealings with their tied tenants. I will ensure that this happens.”
The declaration was established on the 16 March to protect important Pubs Code rights for the duration of the Covid-related closure. While the declaration has not prevented tied tenants who wished to do so from continuing to exercise their Code rights as normal, it has meant that individual tenants did not have to do so at a time when their focus was likely to be on more immediate pressures impacting their business and their employees.
