Fair Pint founder Dodds to be evicted on Friday
Dodds, lessee at the Sun & Doves in Camberwell, south London, has been involved in a dispute with Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company over a proposed rent increase at the pub dating back to September 2005.
At a recent forfeiture hearing he was given three years to pay back £135,000 in backdated rent and legal expenses. However, Dodds fell behind on the repayment plan and will now be evicted on Friday at 10am.
“It has actually come as a relief to finally know it is over,” he said. “The last few years have not been nice.”
Dodds said he will now be declared bankrupt in October.
When he took on the pub in 1995, his rent had been £32,000, which rose to £54,000 in 2001 and then £65,000 following arbitration and a High Court case in 2008. This was backdated to 2005. He has never had his 2010 rent review.
The original rent offer from S&NPC in 2005 had been £82,500.
An S&NPC spokesman said: "The Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company can confirm that it has applied for and been granted a possession order for the Sun & Doves pub in Camberwell and that this will be carried out on Friday 23rd September 2011.
"We believed that we had reached an amicable settlement plan with the lessee on the terms that he offered at court in June.
"Sadly, that appears not to be the case, and taking possession is a matter of last resort having exhausted all other options."
Dodds helped found Fair Pint in 2007 with fellow licensee Steve Corbett, who left the Enterprise-leased George Canning pub, also in Camberwell, in 2009.
