Yahoo Finance Chelsea firms impacted by lockdown hit out over no rent holidays
Tensions between tenants and landlords during the pandemic on Wednesday spread to Chelsea, with a firm slammed for allegedly refusing to offer rent holidays or reductions.
Sloane Stanley, a family-owned estate with properties on King’s Road and Fulham Road, faced accusations of not offering enough help to tenants forced to close shops.
Simon Jeffreys, chief executive of Designers Guild, said he is “seriously worried” at having no income from the group’s King’s Road flagship.
He said landlord Sloane Stanley “is taking such a hard line”, with rent holidays or reductions rejected while alternative offers “do not go anywhere near far enough to help us”.
Also on King’s Road, Chris Grafham, chief executive of William Yeoward Furniture, said when he asked Sloane Stanley, the landlord of his nearby head office, for rental assistance this was denied.
Richard Everett, estate manager at Sloane Stanley, said: “We have always worked with tenants through good times and bad, and will continue to do so. We have asked tenants to pay where they can and will deal with the situation case by case.”
Scores of retailers and restaurant owners across London have been trying to thrash out deals with their landlords, as they try to cope with no, or much slimmer, trade due to government lockdowns.
Landlords have been taking different approaches, with some offering rent holidays or moves to monthly rather than quarterly rent bills.
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