{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/scottish-pubs-code-regulations-2024/regulation-17",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/scottish-pubs-code-regulations-2024/regulation-17.json",
  "legislation": "ssi/2024/193",
  "legislation_title": "The Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/scottish-pubs-code-regulations-2024",
  "path": "regulation/17",
  "kind": "regulation",
  "number": "17",
  "heading": "Assessing the market rent of an MRO lease",
  "text": "(1) If at the end of the negotiation period the pub-owning business and the tied-pub tenant have not reached agreement on the rent to be paid under the MRO lease, a rent assessor is to be appointed to determine the market rent which will apply to the MRO lease.\n(2) The rent assessor is to be appointed by the pub-owning business with the consent of the tied-pub tenant within a period of 3 weeks beginning on the day after the negotiation period ends.\n(3) In the event of a failure to agree an appointment under paragraph (2), the failure must be referred to the adjudicator within a period of 2 weeks beginning with the date on which the 3 week period referred to in paragraph (2) ends.\n(4) A referral to the adjudicator under paragraph (3) can be made by either the pub-owning business or the tied-pub tenant.\n(5) The adjudicator is to appoint a rent assessor within a period of 3 weeks beginning with the day on which the adjudicator is notified of that failure by either the pub-owning business or the tied-pub tenant.\n(6) In the event that the adjudicator is not notified of a failure to agree a joint appointment as referred to in paragraph (3) by either the pub-owning business or the tied-pub tenant the MRO process comes to an end.\n(7) The rent assessor’s terms of appointment must require the rent assessor to determine the market rent for the MRO lease and notify the pub-owning business and tied-pub tenant of that determination, within a period of 4 weeks beginning with the date of the rent assessor’s appointment.\n(7A) The tied-pub tenant or pub-owning business may refer the market rent determination made by the rent assessor to the adjudicator if there is an obvious error in the rent determination.\n(7B) A referral to the adjudicator under paragraph (7A) must be made within a period of 14 days beginning on the date on which the rent assessor notifies the parties in writing of the market rent under paragraph (7).\n(7C) Where the adjudicator, or another person appointed by the adjudicator, considers there to be an obvious error in the market rent determination, the adjudicator, or the person appointed by the adjudicator, may correct that error by notifying the parties in writing of the corrected market rent.\n(8) The pub-owning business must make the tied-pub tenant an offer in writing of an MRO lease within a period of 4 weeks beginning on the day on which the rent assessor notifies the parties in writing of the market rent under paragraph (7) or, if referred to the adjudicator under paragraph (7A), within 4 weeks of the date on which the adjudicator, or a person appointed by the adjudicator, determines the rent under paragraph (7C).\n(9) In accordance with paragraph (8), the pub-owning business must specify that the rent payable is the market rent determined by the rent assessor or, if there is a referral under paragraph (7A), by the adjudicator or a person appointed by the adjudicator, payable from the date on which the tenant requested an MRO lease under regulation 16(1).\n(10) If the offer of an MRO lease has not been accepted by the tied-pub tenant within 2 weeks beginning with the day the tenant received the offer of an MRO lease referred to in paragraph (8) the rent assessment period comes to an end.\n(11) The rent assessor’s fees are to be split equally between the pub-owning business and the tied-pub tenant.\n(12) The rent assessor must be a member or fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.\n(13) The adjudicator may set additional criteria that a person must meet in order to be appointed as a rent assessor.",
  "extent": "S",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Reg. 17(7A)-(7C) inserted (30.3.2025) by The Tied Pubs (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (S.S.I. 2025/92), regs. 1, 3(9)(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in reg. 17(8) inserted (30.3.2025) by The Tied Pubs (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (S.S.I. 2025/92), regs. 1, 3(9)(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in reg. 17(9) inserted (30.3.2025) by The Tied Pubs (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (S.S.I. 2025/92), regs. 1, 3(9)(c)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words in reg. 17(10) substituted (6.10.2024) by The Tied Pubs (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (S.S.I. 2024/245), regs. 1, 2(6)"
    },
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "Reg. 17 in force at 30.6.2025, see reg. 1(3)(b) (as substituted by S.S.I. 2025/92, regs. 1, 3(2))"
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "Commonly referred to as the RICS, a UK-based professional body for surveyors founded on 15 June 1868 and incorporated by Royal Charter on 26 August 1881."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2024/193/regulation/17",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T20:39:55.808849+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}