The Pubs Code:the reasonableness of "market rent only" offers

The Pubs Code has now passed its third birthday. This intervention into the arrangements between tied tenants and their powerful pub-owning companies has one core mission: to ensure that tied tenants are no worse off than non-tied tenants. To do so, it provides a right to trigger a “market rent only” offer, but the operation of the code has proven problematic in practice. This article focuses on the “reasonableness” of “market rent only” offers in the underpinning Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and the accompanying Pubs Code Regulations 2016, and its interpretation by published decisions of the Pubs Code Adjudicator.