Pubs Code changes to take effect from April

24-Mar-2022 - Last updated on 24-Mar-2022 at 10:50 GMT

Changes to the Pubs Code, including to time limits for Market Rent Only (MRO) negotiation and arbitration will take effect from 1 April 2022, the government has said.

Changes to the MRO, which allows tied tenants to request the option of a MRO tenancy for their pub at certain points in a tenancy, will see the negotiation period before the deadline to make a referral for arbitration extended, in relation to any dispute about the compliance of the MRO terms.

From the 1 April, the 21-day period in which the tied tenant must send their MRO notice to the pub company will start the day after the MRO event, instead of on the day the event happened.

The pub company must send an offer for the amount of rent payable as part of the MRO proposal. If it does not, the tied tenant has 14 days starting the day after they receive the MRO proposal to make an arbitration referral to the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA).

If the pub company disagrees there has been a MRO event, the tied tenant then has 14 days from receiving that response to make an arbitration referral to the PCA.

In terms of other changes – when a tied tenant requests a MRO or other rent assessment if there is a significant increase in the price of tied products or services, the ‘comparison period’ has been reduced from 13 months to 12 months.

While the period from when a pub company starts being regulated by the Code is being reduced from six months to three months.

Details of all the changes can be viewed here.