blimeyoreilly

Go here to see the response from Vicky - this post does not tell the full story http://www.hernehill.org.uk/comment/8489#comment-8489

Yeah, I know, right - this person appears from nowhere with very strong opinions. Consider me your Herne Hill deep throat, and for reasons you can probably work out I'll stay anonymous. That hopefully won't negate my opinions in your eyes.

No one said that - it was a third party passing on what they knew. I'm passing on what I know. We have heard directly from Dulwich Estates, but I think if anyone was being disingenuous it was them, as they entirely failed to mention this, or that their surveyor had failed to respond.

oh, do tell! ;p

They say they did respond via the surveyor several times and received no answer.

It is then the work of a short termist and possibly foolish commercial business. Great post on the Londonist I'm going to point you to here: "The end result of this process as you describe it is a high street full of chain stores that looks the same as anywhere else as these are the only companies who can pay such rents... the area loses it's unique appeal and people stop visiting. Chain stores are owned by national and international interests and pay minimum wage so the families who used to own their own businesses end up stacking shelves in Waitrose for minimum wage. Also, as far as 'landlords asking the rent they can get'... look at Germany and France where rapacious property development is controlled... landlords still make money and do ok out of it but they don't succumb to a level of greed in which only multinationals can survive and are allowed to swallow up communities. Property developers and chain stores seek only to pay dividends to their shareholders... they do not invest in local communities... they suck as much profit out of the area as possible." Dulwich Estates have had 3 pubs which are all closed - losing them money and us the opportunity to use the pubs. They have just allowed the 7th hairdressers in the area to open. Traders are facing massive rent hikes that are based on 'what the market will bear' rather than a considered long term strategies. Those they rent to talk of difficulties in getting answers from Dulwich Estates. This all smacks to me of incompetence rather than greed - or as well as. Its probably time to shine a light on this rather cosy and old fashioned charity. What is required for it to have it charitable status and are they fulfilling all of these requirements? What are their strategic plans for the area? We should ask these questions of any large business that had such an impact on us. I would welcome their attendance at any of the community meetings to give us an opportunity to discuss these points with them. They have been rather silent on all of these points with the exception of publishing personal correspondence re rent with them and Just Williams on this forum, something I consider to be deeply unprofessional

In the interests of fairness if you include the rent on the garage, parking etc that you hand't been charging for previously that does raise it to 67.5% rent increase. and in the interests of fairness, you (or rather your surveyor) have singularly failed to answer emails or process the responses from the Toy Shop at all. Thus failing in your duty as a landlord to actually you know, manage the property. Add that to the fact you have three pubs, none of which are currently opened (in fact one has been demolished) and your inabiliy to curate the mix of shops so that there is a good mix of shops ( I believe that Number 22 has been let to a hairdressers, the 7th in the area not counting barbers - I refuse to believe Herne Hillers have that much hair) then I'd argue you do have a case to answer for not performing your duties as a landlord adequately