Pictured above: (l-r) James White (King Sturge), Martin
Burns (RICS) and Richard Fantham (Harris Lamb)
One of the region's top property consultants King Sturge hosted
a presentation to the Calderbank Club (a group of landlord and
tenant surveyors in Birmingham) on a new RICS guidance note that
re-introduces an alternative form of dispute resolution aimed at
making the process of settling lease renewal disputes easier and
less costly.
The presentation on Professional Arbitration on Court Terms
(PACT) was made by the Director of Dispute Resolution Service at
the RICS Martin Burns.
Mr Burns says, "Taking a dispute to court is a costly experience
and can be avoided if the parties choose to take up PACT.
"Traditionally parties who could not agree on terms would have
no option but to go through a lengthy and expensive court process
but utilising an arbitrator or independent experts to decide via
PACT is a much better option to resolve the dispute."
The RICS issued the new practice guide to encourage surveyors
and lawyers involved in lease renewals to utilise PACT as it has
been available for a number of years but has had a low profile and
was not often used.
Andrew Crampton a lease consultancy partner at King Sturge who
acts as an arbitrator comments: "We have welcomed this new
initiative from the RICS to reintroduce PACT which can resolve
disputes over lease terms as well as rent
"PACT offers several other advantages over the court system
other than cost and speed. It is independent third parties,
arbitrators or independent experts that are chosen to resolve the
dispute and their specialist knowledge will be greater than that of
a county court judge who is likely to have little experience of
lease renewals.
"There is also much more flexibility in terms of procedures and
timings as these can be agreed by the parties involved."
The RICS president Max Crofts who is a Partner at King Sturge
Bristol has also welcomed the initiative. He said: "'PACT deserves
to become better known among practitioners and more widely used in
the courts as a method of alternative dispute resolution. This is
particularly true now when the trend is for shorter leases and
lease renewals will be an increasing feature in the workload of
property advisers."