Report of meeting held Wednesday 18th May, 2016

Minutes of a meeting of the board of directors of the Company held at BBPA Offices, Brewers’ Hall, Aldermanbury Square, London, EC2V 7HR on Wednesday 18th May, 2016 at 12:00 pm

 

Present:

Sir Peter Luff (Chairman)

George Barnes

Mike Clist

Brigid Simmonds

Kate Nicholls

Nick Griffin

Bill Sharpe

Martin Caffrey

Jane Twitchin

 

Apologies:

Jim Cathcart

 

1.Preliminary

The Chairman noted that the meeting had been duly convened, that a quorum of five directors was present in accordance with the Articles of Association and declared the meeting open.

2.Minutes of the last meeting 11th April

The Chair proceeded with the meeting by requesting that the minutes of the meeting held on 11th April, 2016 be proposed as a true and accurate record of the discussions that took place.  The Board approved the minutes.

 

3.PICA-Service update/cases

  • Outcome of a complicated case 3rd May is to be announced in due course.
  • 2 cases are currently stalled whilst identifying if they can go through PICA-Service
  • M Rawlings is currently working on 5 open enquiries.
  • All the rest are now closed.

 

4.PIRRS update on cases

  • 8 new applications since the last PGB. 5 are awaiting payment before can be processed, 4 are one company and came in together.
  • 3 of the current open cases shown have since been closed; the date of determination is to be confirmed.
  • Updates have been given by Independent Experts on all open cases in the last week. Further detail on any cases is available on the working document held by the administrator

 

5.PGB Subscriptions

5 subscriptions are outstanding and 6 are due in June. All pub companies have reported their numbers.

 

6.Statutory Code and adjudicator

  • It was discussed that the reason the regulation was pulled was due to a drafting error in reference to part 2 of the landlord and tenant act. It was a significantly grey area as to be unhelpful. This is now resolved and the earliest date is likely to be 24th June for statutory. The new regulations have not been seen. The dates of 8th July and 19th August remain. Implementation of the Regulations cannot be made retrospective to the date of 26th May.
  • Pub Cos have received a letter asking them to back date to 26th May and B Simmonds confirmed that all are waiting to respond until they have seen the final regulations. The Adjudicator is not keen to field calls asking for information.
  • M Clist and K Nicholls confirmed the number of calls to both organisations have increased asking for information regarding what will happen. The board all agreed that complaints under IFC6 will be considered by the PGB for 1 year from the implementation date of the Regulations.
  • Once the new legislation is in place IFC6 will be replaced by the new voluntary code.
  • It was noted that in some cases the right to PIRRS is referenced in the lease. It seems that both the Adjudicator and the large pub companies are keen for PIRRS to continue. PIRRS for large companies could continue with the nominal fee for administration paid by both sides.
  • The Board discussed the right to appeal to the Adjudicator after a determination by an Independent Expert. On normal rent reviews and if PIRRS is used, there is no further right to go to the adjudicator.
  • M Clist has negotiated rates with Independent Experts to give advice on MRO. If the relevant information is available, the cost would be approximately £750 for 2 hours.

 

7.Statutory Regime and Transitional Matters

The PGB will remain to oversee the new Code.

 

8.AOB

  • J Twitchin confirmed Punch are the only Pub Company that have already submitted their Annual Statement of Compliance. This will be reviewed in the next meeting.
  • Action: Brigid is to chase the other 5, they are due in by 31st May.
  • K Nicholls confirmed her focus for BDM training is focused on liaising with CPL and companies and addressing their concerns.

Code for the under 500 Pub Companies

  • M Clist met with companies supporting the new Codes. Once finalised the PGB will need to oversee this. This is a code for England and Wales. The Code for Scotland will have to reflect differences in Scottish law. The new Codes do not list organisations, but individual participating pub companies.
  • They will be sent to all Tenants and lessees.
  • There will be an interview check list for every applicant which will be ticked as they go along and both parties will confirm.
  • Initially sign-up has been confined to slightly larger companies, but SIBA is now considering further. The new Codes will come into force on the same day as the Statutory Regulations.
  • Action K Nicholls will draft press release on the role of PGB moving forward including a statement from the Chairman of IFBB

PEAT

M Clist is having a meeting to redesign PEAT. All consulted felt that the current PEAT took too long to complete.  There will be a very short PEAT for TAWs.

 

9.Date and time of next meeting

Monday 18th July, 2016 12:30pm

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