tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Back to Tresspass- I believe they use the "Closing Down" trick as a negotiation tool for a lease renewal with a landlord. There appear to be quite a few "closing down" at the moment with dates near to the end of the year. I am sure they wait to the last minute and if the landlord hasn't found a new tenent then they screw him to the floor on price- and if he has- they shrug their shoulders and either pay the new lease costs or close as advertised
Having looked at retail rents in Staffod it seems a fair practice to me, some of them are extortionate! If you can negotiate better then do so, but as LLFC said on another thread the rental agreement should be mutually beneficial to both parties. Places like Chambers for example will never be rented out again if prices don't fall, IIRC the shop occupied by Terraces costs 1k a week! Many landlords are greedy, and would rather see a shop empty than risk letting someone have it for less than they might have paid. Thats the real issue Stafford has, most retail units are owned by people that don't live here and don't care. They are just sitting on the properties hoping they increase in value naturally without having to bother with tenants.