Transfer worries return to haunt - Peter Coulson

When the Licensing Bill was published, I had a number of reservations about its effectiveness to deal with issues that can and do arise in the licensed trade.

We have had a classic example in recent days, with the collapse of London & Edinburgh and the resultant administration by receivers Ernst & Young.

The problem stems from the fact that in such a situation the people

actually running the pub - in this case the lessees - seem powerless to do anything about the licence, which they need to continue in business.

At the time of writing it seems that there has been an attempt by those currently controlling the remnants of the company to transfer most of the licences away from those operating companies that are now in administration. Fortunately, there is a brief window of opportunity under section 50 of the Licensing Act to obtain a quick transfer in cases of death and bankruptcy - because both events in most cases cause the premises licence to lapse.

Moving the licences to a "shell" company under section 50 was a good idea, but it is a technical solution, activated at a time when the existing lessees could have no knowledge of what was going on and could have been seriously jeopardised if the correct action had not been taken.

I pointed out at that early time that one of the unfortunate effects from small-scale licensees was that at a time of mourning, where an owner-occupier suddenly died, his relatives only had seven days to do the paperwork for this kind of emergency transfer. Under the old system, the protection order was automatic.

Here's another difficult situation. Most L&E lessees only received details of their situation in a letter last week - far too long after the collapse for them to do anything about it. The recommendation from the administrator - along with a lot of hard-ball comments about stock, fittings and ownership - was that in some cases the premises would have to close and a fresh licence would have to be applied for. It has given existing lessees 14 days from the letter date, which means by next Tuesday, to contact it about transferring the licence into the lessees' names. This is the administrator's notice period - the law in most cases gives it no such deadline. But Ernst & Young has threatened to surrender the licences if it is not contacted, which would once again put the lessees in considerable difficulty.

I am hoping to prevail with the administrator in a request for a slightly longer period for applications. It would not affect the administrator's financial obligations and would in fact cost it nothing. But it may help those lessees who are not entirely clear where they stand at present.

There is also the point that a transfer costs just £23, while a new licence, with fees and advertisements, could be in the region of £500-600 or even more.

I am glad to report that the licensing officers to whom I have spoken about this understand the situation and will try to help individuals where necessary to "get back on the rails". But because of the wide spread of the L&E lease portfolio, stretching into all parts of Scotland as well, it may not be easy to help every one of the unfortunate lease-holders at this time.

Where a company is bought lock, stock and barrel, there is no transfer problem because the company itself still holds the licences, even though there are new owners.

But when individual pubs are sold, or a company goes bust, then there are licence problems which may not be immediately recognised.

This is why I was keen for the individual licensees to hold the licence, rather than the company. At least with that in your pub's safe, you know where you are.

l London & Edinburgh lessees may contact me direct for advice at Yvprafvat@nby.pbz​