Agent stops marketing Admiral Taverns pubs

Property agent Caldicott Payne Commercial has taken the decision to cease marketing properties on behalf of Admiral Taverns.

Admiral currently has 220 mostly freehold sites on the market, with multiple agents including Fleurets and Paramount Investments.

Richard Payne, sales director of Caldicott Payne says he has removed them from his books following what he described as "many problems with being kept up to date with sites that are available for sale, then not for sale, then mysteriously exchanged or completed without prior warning".

Payne says he found contracts were being exchanged on many of the sites within days of coming to the market and that he believed multiple parties were competing for the same property in 'contract races', to see who would exchange first.

Payne said: "While this isn't legally a problem, it is not something we would like to promote. We have always promised to remain true to what we set out to be in 2005, an independent agent that looks after the private vendor and not one that favours the larger corporate client."

Andy Clifford, joint managing director of Admiral Taverns reacted to the claims, saying that some properties were being snapped up very quickly upon entering the market.

"We will deal with offers as they are received and will react quickly where purchasers are interested in properties," he said.

The news comes as agent Paramount Investments confirmed it has sold 16 of the 51 Admiral sites released in January.

Fleurets has said it has sold 10 Admiral sites since November, with five others currently under offer. The majority, they said, are being sold for alternative use.