Retail landlords fail to comply with RICS code
In a report by Property Week, the Service Charge Operating Report (SCOR) for Retail 2012,based on the service charge cost data from 100 shopping centres with a total lettable area of circa 50m sq ft and yearly expenditure of just under £300m, shows that only 4% of shopping centre landlords show evidence of how service charge accounts are prepared, despite this being a key recommendation of the RICS code of practice. The report also revealed that only 54% of landlords are having annual reconciliation statements signed off by an accountant or surveyor. Finally, the report showed that shopping centre retail tenants are, on average, paying between £4.34 and £6.68 per square foot of space they rent but the reason for this wide cost gap remains unexplained.
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