In last month’s blog – I confined that the Court of Appeal has granted permission for the decision in Mundy to be appealed. The appeal hearing has been set for 16th & 17th January 2018 (unless heard sooner.)
In the meantime – I can say, hand on heart, that I have settled relativities no lower than the old Gerald Eve 1996 graph and for unexpired leases between 5 and 10 years (but nearer to 5) let alone any further argument that relativity should be depressed further in line with the Vale Court decision (which dealt with sub 5 year leases and determined relativity is reached based on a discounted rentalised approach over the duration of the unexpired lease.)
The landlords’ side will of course say that the new Gerald Eve 16 graph has yet to be explained and given the CA appeal now on the cards – perhaps now is not the moment to apply it.
However if you really want to know the real reason why we continue to settle on the old graph – it’s simply to keep ‘the cogs turning’ in the difficult trading market we face in PCL due to too high SDLT and other transaction costs that has depressed the market over the past 18 months or so!