The government of FF, FG and labour don’t care when will people realise that. They have the power but choose not to do anything.

Missing the point there Reg.Upward only rents something the present government promised to abolish.But surprise surprise they didn’t.

@bobby

That’s unfair! Of course they care . . .

About their own ministerial pensions, perks, expenses etc. and will say and promise anything to get them.

You said it Eric don’t forget the bond holders and banks

@Reg,

I seem to recall certain chains trumpeting their cost neutral or loss-making grafton st stores as fulfilling marketing and advertising needs by maintaining a presence in Ireland’s premier shopping street. For instance, how can a mobile phone shop turn a profit on grafton st?

I think crazy rents were willingly signed by bullish management, with more peripheral stores providing the profits that smoothed out the always loss-making grafton st stores. Now that the businesses are suffering overall, they have to close these loss-making stores.

It would be better all around if landlords would adjust their expectations. There isn’t another boom-time store to come in and pay loss-making rent, just to maintain a grafton st presence. That said, they’ve every right to enforce a contract in my book. They’re doing it the hard way, rather than the easy way, by enforcing upwards-only clauses and losing tenants, but that’s their prerogative. I don’t believe for a second that Korky’s ever ran a profitable store on grafton st with those kind of overheads. It’s a small enough outlet of theirs on grafton st.

Furthermore, their product isn’t as good as the offering schuh provide.

Reg, there are a lot of women out there. ;-)

Well said Rónán, spot on. Grafton Street is a loss making street for small businesses, let’s not forget it was the 5th most expensive street in the world when these guys decided to rent there.

I think is very unfair, and far to easy, to start blaming bank pensions etc, etc. This isn’t just any commerical street we’re talking about here.

You never win at Monopoly with just the purples.

And the live register rises yet again with no sign of sneaky Kennys jobs that he promised..I really hope he is tried for acts endangering the Irish economy and his out right lies him and his party falsy used to trick people

It was FF that put us here. Why are the Irish so thick they cannot think outside the present. It was irrelevant who came into power. The place was damaged beyond belief. Yes the coalition are useless at empathysing or good PR but they can’t win.

@simon it was a world recession..always blame the last guy just like fg saying they have to be hard on us because ff left it like that,its just propaganda

@ MVM. Canada, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, Middle East, Sweden. All largely unaffected by the ‘global recession’. Why? Because their governments did not allow their banks over leverage and fuel a property bubble. The ‘global’ aspect of the recession is BECAUSE the USA property crash hugely affected global demand for goods and services. Yes we would have had a slump regardless but if you look at our exports they are quite healthy and most multinationals are unchanged in Irland via a vis employment. FF single handedly have given each and every person in the republic if Ireland a debt of 300,000€ per head. That’s nothin to do with a global recession.

Yes Simon, but if anything FG and Labour were egging the FF government on. They certainly weren’t telling them to prepare the economy for a gentle landing were they?

F**k them and their extortionate rent.

Go online with a decent website mate at a fraction of the cost.

Grafton Street is hadrly ‘dying’ in fact it has almost 100% occupancy with tenants such as The Disney Store and Tommy H opening over the last number of months. Korkys unit will be re-let within a matter of weeks.

American and British stores can afford to stay around while our own people get shafted.

It will be re-let at a lower price.

Lads you’re completely jumping the gun. Grafton Street is one of the most expensive streets in the world; 5th in 2008 at €5,621/m²/year. Now do you really think Korky’s, or any other smaller retailer chains on that street, ever actually turned over enough money to cover their rent? No. They make a loss on those shops for the privilege of being able to advertise having a property there.

Now why these guys signed a 25 year lease on this particular street is beyond me. I feel sorry for the staff who will be losing there jobs but the owners need to realise the limitations of their business.

Business not as good? Right, the loss making shop has to go. Simple.

They signed a lease in 1995 before any boom. Big difference.

Look any budget that is drawn up has to be passed by the Dail so all within the Dail have to vote and nearly all TDs will vote in favour of it. So no one party is to blame. It is a waste of energy playing the blame game they should instead focus their energy on fixing things properly and not targeting vulnerable groups.

They should never have made that promise.

But I see no point in blaming NAMA as the bogeyman. The foundation for commerce in this (and any) country is legally binding contracts. The government took advice and were told (they should have known) that it would be very dodgy territory to retrospectively change the terms and conditions of a contract. It would be a very dangerous precedent.

Ronan. The government have no problem with interference in “contract law ” in order to attach financial burdens to property ownership and finding ways to wriggle out of the constitutional right for an individual to own private property free of interference from the state. But that suits them , revising the law on upward only rents wouldn’t suit them

What “contract law” are you referring to? I have no contract with the government. There is a wider social contract expressed in the constitution, and implied in the laws built upon it.

You have the right to own property, that doesn’t mean own it free of taxes. The government can charge you a clean air tax if they wish, though it may not be wise politically.

I’m talking about legally binding contract, between two involved parties.

Example 1: If you had an upward only pay review clause in your contract with a private company, how would you feel if the company lobbied the government for permission to break that clause without your say so, nullifying the agreement you have between you and your company?

Example 2: If you were a man with a van, contracted to deliver milk at 10c per litre, how would you feel if the dairy lobbied the government, saying ‘I can’t afford the contract I signed of my own free will 5 years ago with Sean Wallace, can’t you do something?’, and you suddenly were only getting 8c per litre delivered – a massive 20% cut in your income.

I don’t have notions about the nobility of landlords, but a contract is a contract. I’d rather shops close (and be replaced by others) than have a free for all in the courts with everyone trying to squirm out of stuff they signed during the boom. If you’re doing badly, you try to negotiate with suppliers/vendors. If they are stupid enough to lose all your business and owed monies instead of giving you a haircut on debt and/or a discount, then more fool them.

Rónán

NAMA are one of, if not already, the biggest commercial property owner in the state.
Banning upward only rent reviews may have the effect of reducing the value of commercial property, and by extension the net worth of NAMA, “going forward”. Therefore it is beneficial to NAMA that upward only rent reviews are kept.

As for the Government not being able to retrospectively change terms and conditions, they are doing that right now in relation to the septic tank charge. The vast majority of homes that were built 10, 20 even 100 years ago were built in line with the building regulations, (laws), which existed at the time of building, which included septic tanks. However the septic tank legislation puts in place the condition that home owners must comply with regulations that not only post date the building, but even regulations that may be brought in 100 or more years from now.

So this Government are retrospectively changing the terms and conditions as they apply to individuals but not to organisations.

The result is
Individuals will pay more tax to pay for bank bail outs.
Individual will pay more bank charges to pay for bank bail outs.
Individuals will pay property taxes (property tax, water charges, septic tank charges, etc), to pay for failed property developments.
Individuals will pay more for the goods in their shopping baskets owing to upward only rent reviews, to pay for failed property developments.

All for what?

So that a paperless transaction appears in the correct column of a set of EU financial accounts, that’s what!

NAMA, in the majority of cases, own the loans pertaining to properties you talk about. Lets be clear about that.

@ronan
Look at the government dealings with doctors, consultants, dentists and pharmacists, they used FEMPI legislation to change contracts ‘in the interest of the country’ due to the financial necessity. It would be in the interest of all of us to have this stupid UORR situation reversed

Firstly i have to say this was another Shameful promise made to the business communities during the run up to and during the FG election campaign.

Secondly and more seriously, I would have to guess this only upward rent scheme is anti competitive and an illegal cartel…. Why don’t someone take this to the EU stage to test how legal it actually is??????

A Centra or a Spar. If there’s one thing Dublin needs it’s another Centra or Spar.

Martain Enda didnt causethe recession

He also hasnt the power to rip up contracts between two people especially when one of the people was silly enough to sign a 25 year upward only lease

You can blame enda on alot but not this

If it could be legally done i feel it would have

He promised to get rid off upwardly only rents and to get contracts renegotiated…he did NOT do this. What he did do is allow the council to up the rates and make things harder for small business. The man is a shill and a coward.

You can’t cancel them. That’s the point.

Pardon my ignorance. What happens if a business fails? Do they still have to pay?

Depends on the lease. If you’ve signed a personal guarantee you could be in real trouble. If not, presumably unpaid rent joins the queue of people owed money.

The problem here is that people didn’t refuse to sign conditions that placed all the risk of a downturn on the tenant. Some of those (e.g. upward only rent review clauses) have been made illegal to protect people from themselves. Thankfully (but sadly for the shopowner), one cannot retrospectively invalidate contracts retrospectively.

Sub-letting or selling on the lease is typically acceptable, and a wise thing to do before you get too deep into trouble. It may be that a failed business simply cannot pay the rent, but someone else is willing to take over the location and start their own business.

“heard bad things” ….??????? gossiping is alive and kicking

I’d like to quote the words of Mrs God:

“Don’t tell me what you heard!” Judge Judy Tv3 4.30 – 5.30pm weekdays

From a disgruntled employee no doubt.

Not sure why that comment got so many thumbs down really. But if they were unable to pay rent I don’t see why they kept hiring staff? Someone I know worked there for two weeks on unpaid training and was then let go when she was promised what seemed like a fairly stable job about two years ago. Since then I had seen, up until a few months ago, a staff wanted sign in the window. Seems a little dodgy to me.. Did not one other person notice the sign there for months on end? I work on Grafton st and live nearby so I noticed it.