username
password
register lost password
Services

Brownill Bateman were established in 1884 as a specialist firm of surveyors and valuers serving the licensed property industry.

The company has gone from strength to strength and now represents one of the UK's market leaders in all aspects of professional and commercial agency work relating to licensed and leisure property.

Our day-to-day work sees our involvement in hotels, bars, pubs, country inns, restaurants, nightclubs, community clubs, golf clubs and all facets of licensed and leisure property across the country.

Our offices are located in the centre of the UK and afford excellent communications.

Brownill, Vickers and Platts is made up of six partners, two professional associates, a senior chartered surveyor and an excellent support team and includes fellows or members of :

  • The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
  • The Association of Valuers of Licensed Property
  • The Restaurant Property Advisors Society
  • The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
  • The Expert Witness Institute
  • The National Association of Estate Agents
  • The Midland Counties Licensed Property Valuers Association
  • The Northern Licensed Trade Valuers Association.
  • The British Institute of Innkeepers
  • The Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations

Whilst we undertake work for and value working for individuals we similarly represent the majority of the UK's leading pub companies, many of the country's Breweries and the majority of the UK's leading finance and lending institutions.

We pride ourselves on the service we afford to all sectors of the market and the personal touch we can, as a Company well aware of its beginnings, bring to the surveyor/client relationship.

The services we afford include:

  • Sales of all types of licensed property
  • Lettings of all types of licensed property ranging from individual personalised cases to tranches of up to two hundred Pub or Brewery Company owned pubs and restaurants
  • Valuations for all purposes
  • Surveys and reports as to condition
  • Tenancy changeover valuations
  • Fixtures, fittings and assets valuations
  • Business Plans and Appraisals
  • Rating
  • Compulsory Purchase and Compensation
  • Management of rented properties
  • Insurance services to the licensed trade
Freehold and lease assignment marketing

When the time comes for you to sell it is essential you obtain expert advice from specialists with a thorough market knowledge of the licensed property sector.

Similarly you will require the best of advice and service if you are contemplating purchasing an interest in licensed premises – you may need a valuation, a survey, business planning or other advice.

We pride ourselves on both our services and successes as far as our licensed and leisure-marketing services are concerned.

Licensed property freeholds have become somewhat of a rarity on the market and we are keen to add to those we have on our books. We have an excellent mailing list and communicate daily with active Breweries and Pub Companies in the market to purchase. It pays to employ us to introduce competition in the market place rather than simply arrange a private deal with an individual purchaser and this usually has the result in achieving a higher sale price.

Licensed property leases. We are a market leader both in terms of recruiting for new leases and concerning lease assignments. The choice of agents for the latter has become fraught with pitfalls and we set out, therefore, below the commitment we afford to clients to ensure they receive the most effective and successful service.

We have an extensive mailing list both on the web and by way of our Review magazine. If you wish to view this Click here.

Our commitment
  • Professional integrity - we will recommend a marketing price which is constructed wherever possible by way of comparing what you have to offer with sales figures achieved for similar pubs in similar locations with similar profitability and, as appropriate, similar leases. We will not simply tell you what we think 'you will wish to hear' simply to obtain your instructions only to disappoint you later having effectively ruined the market for you. We were established in 1884 are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and other professional organisations besides being corporate members of the BII and the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations.
  • Flexibility - having made our recommendations we discuss these comprehensively with clients prior to launching the property or the lease onto the market.
  • Performance - we have been involved in the sale of licensed property freeholds since the nineteenth century and were there at the very commencement of the coming into effect of pub leases as we know them. We act for both vendors and purchasers, for individual lessees selling by assignment and Breweries and Pub Companies launching new leases. This enables us to maintain a mailing list database of considerable size featuring would-be buyers across the country. We have been market leaders for many years, not 'Johnnie come lately's.' Our record speaks for itself.
  • Personal Service - your interests will be looked after by an experienced valuer who will be accessible to you whenever required. An individual office-based licensed property negotiator with considerable experience will deal with your sale on a day to day basis providing both yourself and interested parties with a single point of contact readily accessible to ensure that your sale runs smoothly.
  • Reasonable terms - we are confident that our rate of charges stands scrutiny with those of our bonafide peers. We are extremely competitive and afford exceptional value to clients. This is one of the reasons why such numbers of individuals and the majority of the major Breweries and Pub Companies utilise our services.
  • Transparency - we utilise an agency contract which is easy to understand, fair and contains no 'hidden penalties.' We operate on a sole agency basis and do not always need to take 'money up front' to reflect the fact we need to expend monies on advertising locally and nationally, need to send out mail shots of our colour Licensed Property Review mailing list, post the opportunity on this web site etc. etc.
Valuation

Our day-to-day valuation work sees our involvement in hotels, bars, pubs, country inns, restaurants, nightclubs, community clubs, golf clubs and all facets of licensed and leisure property across the country.

Whilst we undertake work for and value working for individuals we similarly represent the majority of the UK's leading pub companies, many of the country's Breweries and the majority of the UK's leading finance and lending institutions.

We have an unrivalled knowledge of the market and prepare all types of reports. The following provides just an illustration of the usages to which our valuations are utilised:-

  • Free trade borrowing
  • Freehold sales or purchase
  • Lease sales or purchase
  • Bank or other lending institutions
  • Matrimonial
  • Capital Gains
  • Estate duty (deceased estates)
  • Inheritance Tax
  • Venture capital
Surveys

We undertake property surveys on a wide range of commercial properties and for a variety of purposes. Surveys are prepared for clients considering committing to a purchase or a lease. Where defects or items of disrepair are noted a survey will provide clients with peace of mind.

Our dilapidations surveyors also prepare and serve schedules of dilapidations on behalf of landlords, or act on behalf of tenants by responding to and negotiating the costs of a dilapidations claim. Schedules of Dilapidations are often prepared for lease assignment purposes.

Additionally, we prepare schedules of condition which can be attached to leases to limit the tenant's repairing obligations and act as a schedule of evidence relating to the state of repair at a particular property.

Rent Reviews

Brownill Vickers and Platts specialise in licensed property rent reviews acting for individual tenants or lessees and pub company landlords in broadly equal measure.

We similarly act for tenants or landlords when a lease comes to an end and there is the need to negotiate new lease terms in accordance with Landlord and Tenant Security of Tenure Legislation.

We have a wealth of excellent market evidence at our fingertips given the number of new licensed property lettings we effect across the country and the rent reviews we are involved in on a daily basis.

If negotiations become difficult we have a specialist partner with massive experience of dealing with the most difficult of rent review arbitrations and acts regularly as Expert Witness in respect of requisite court applications for a statutory lease renewal. You will note reference to rent reviews under the heading of dispute resolution above.

Be sure that if utilise our services you'll be in excellent hands.

Dispute Resolution

We live in a litigious world and more and more disputes are being referred to the Courts, to Arbitration, to Independent Experts or to PACT (professional arbitration on court terms).

Brownill Vickers and Platts have many years experience in licensed property valuation and agency issues and specialise in dispute resolution services.

Partner Rodger Vickers is on the panel of the President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and receives regular appointments both as an Arbitrator and as an Independent Expert dealing mainly with rent reviews under the terms of licensed property leases but also with other disputes. Rodger is similarly, given the breadth of his experience in the field, best placed and fully qualified to represent licensed property landlords or tenants in rent review issues both in respect of negotiating a settlement or, should the need arise, in preparing representations and counter representations and generally heading the Arbitration or Independent Expert submission process on behalf of a client or a client Company.

Rodger is a member of the Expert Witness Institute and his appearances as expert have seen him assisting the courts across the country in respect of professional negligence, misrepresentation, matrimonial disputes, fraud and lease renewal trials.

Rodger also deals with Lands Tribunal proceedings primarily in respect of compulsory purchase compensation claims.

Whilst a great deal of Rodger's time is taken up in licensed property dispute resolution he continues to head a marketing team renowned as being a market leader in the launching of licensed property leases and the marketing of new leases and lease assignments. He sees this continuing day-to-day experience both of the market and of the operation of licensed property businesses as being an essential part of his expertise.

Insurance Services

Having acted independently as Insurance Brokers to the licensed trade for over a century, Brownills have become in recent times acutely aware that as a result of various disasters, increasing claims ratios and takeovers within the industry it has become increasingly difficult to place insurance in the niche licensed property market at rates beneficial to clients.

We were pleased, therefore, to enter into a formal arrangement with major national brokers in order to ensure the most competitive quotations and the best of insurance services for our licensed trade clients.

The brokers concerned were established in 1882 and are classified as being one of the top hundred brokers in the UK. They have an exceptionally strong presence in the commercial market and this enables them to place business not only with the major UK insurers but also with the international markets. The company act as brokers for a number of national affinity group schemes including high profile names in the banking and commercial world. They have been the winners of various national awards and have twice been elected by the British Insurance Industry as Commercial Broker of the Year.

We would be delighted to arrange premium quotations for your licensed property insurance needs.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you wish to utilise our services or have any queries on pubs@brownillbateman.com, by telephoning 0114 290 3300 or faxing 0114 275 4971.