Overview
Pub-owning businesses have three core duties under the Code: give prospective tenants the right information before they sign a lease, tell the Adjudicator about breaches when they happen, and pay the annual levy where one is set. The first two are covered below; the levy already has its own page - see the note at the end of this section.
Provision of information to prospective tenants
What the tenant-facing guidance says the tenant will receive
Before signing a lease, a prospective tenant must be given: information about pre-entry training (unless they're already a tied-pub tenant, or were one in the last three years); a draft lease covering breach handling, complaints and disputes, repairs, any investment proposals, and a current tied-product price list; a rent assessment statement (proposed rent, a 12-month profit and loss forecast, three years of alcohol purchase history, and the basis for the calculation); a Schedule of Condition and repair details; costs and charges they'll be responsible for, plus a published report on UK tied-pub trading costs; gaming machine arrangements and revenue split; and advice and support the landlord can offer. First tenancies also get a pub description, current licences, recent enforcement action, and tenancy history.
What the landlord's checklist additionally requires
The pre-lease checklist for pub-owning businesses covers the same ground, near word-for-word - with two extra duties that don't appear in the tenant-facing guidance at all (flagged below): advising the tenant to prepare a business plan, and notifying prospective tenants in writing about the MRO investment-agreement exception.
Business plan duty missing from tenant guidance. The landlord checklist requires pub-owning businesses to advise the tenant to prepare a business plan, point them to independent advisors, ask to see it, and give it due regard when negotiating. None of this appears in the prospective-tenant guidance - a tenant reading only their own page wouldn't know to expect it.
MRO investment-agreement notice missing from tenant guidance. The landlord checklist requires written notice to prospective tenants that an investment agreement could affect their future MRO right, including the £35,000/150%-of-rent threshold and the 5-year exception. This is covered on the Market rent only leases page, but doesn't appear anywhere in the prospective-tenant guidance itself.
Provision of information to SPCA
If a pub-owning business identifies a breach of the Code, it must notify the Adjudicator as soon as possible, using a standard self-disclosure breach form. The form should explain how the breach happened, its impact on tenants, the corrective action being taken, and how affected tenants are being told and can get more information.
The Adjudicator publishes a register of self-disclosure breaches - including a description of each breach and the action taken - so the industry can see how the Code is being applied. Self-disclosure is taken into account when the Adjudicator considers any regulatory response.
A separate page under Adjudicator (General reporting) is also being drafted, covering the Complaints guidance - either party raising something about the other, investigated or arbitrated by the Adjudicator. That's a different process from the self-disclosure duty above, but the two may read as overlapping. Worth a cross-reference between the two pages once both are finalised.
Payment of Annual Levy
This third sub-topic already exists as its own live page under Pub owning business obligations, with the reparented levy-arrangements content in place. See Payment of Annual Levy.
Related guidance
SPCA Enquiry Line - 0300 244 1225 - pubscodeadjudicator@gov.scot