Admiral demands backdated rents

Shocked Admiral hosts are being asked to fork-out thousands of pounds in back-rent after the new owner of their pubs discovered the previous operator had failed to carry out scheduled rent reviews or Retail Price Index (RPI) increases.

Admiral Taverns is increasing the rents of former Pyramid Pub Company tenants but could demand the extra rent and RPI payments backdated nine years or more. One licensee said he had been presented with a £2,300 bill by Admiral reflecting a retrospective increase going back to the original review date of March 2005.

Host Alan Lester, who runs the Hand & Heart, at Holt, near Wrexham, in north Wales, claims Admiral demanded the money only after he gave them notice he was quitting the pub. "They want to impose a 7.3% increase on the rent, raising the figure to £17,363 per year, which I could have lived with. But now they want the increase backdated to the original review date which means I owe them an extra £2,300," he said.

Neighbour Phil Liddell, who runs the village's Peal O' Bells pub, said he faced a minimum arrears bill of £8,000 but feared the final demand would be more.

Liddell has run the pub since 2003 but said no RPI increase or rent review had taken place since 1998 when the lease originated. "It seems RPI increases were never collected and rent reviews never took place. Things were in a real mess," he said.

An Admiral spokesperson said: "We are currently conducting a rent review with some of the pubs which Admiral purchased from Pyramid in 2006.

"We are following the relevant legal guidelines throughout this rental review and are in continued negotiations with licensees who are affected.

"Once any changes have been agreed we will work with our licenses to help them create suitable repayment programmes."