Hondo: Cornercopia leaves Brixton Village

Home and plant store Cornercopia has been in Brixton Village for 11 years, but recently announced it will not reopen after being forced into the insecure tenancy.  

One of its three units was previously being leased within the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, which allows the tenant to renew the lease at the market rent. 

Before Hondo Enterprises bought Brixton Village and Market Row, Cornercopia had entered into negotiations with the previous owners after they asked for a rent increase of more than 100 per cent and to agree a new contract outside of the Act. 

Hondo took over those negotiations after they came on the scene.  

Co-owner Anne Fairbrother said: “They said they wanted to resolve things as quickly as possible for us because it had been quite stressful.  

“However, when they came up with the new heads of terms it was completely different to the old contract and they had introduced a lot of new clauses we couldn’t agree with.  

“There was a 10 per cent turnover clause on top of rent increases and various other things that really took away some of the independence we had as a business.” 

Cornercopia got surveyors involved to help come up with what would be a “reasonable and fair” rent increase, based on the market rates, and ended up coming to an agreement with Hondo. 

They were close to signing a contract pre-Covid but Anne got stuck abroad for five months after the pandemic hit.  

When negotiations resumed, Hondo demanded that the rent increases were backdated a year to the point at which the heads of terms were agreed.  

“Which post-Covid was really quite unreasonable because obviously we’ve not been able to trade, we’ve taken out bank loans, the bounce back loans, and we couldn’t really afford to do that.  

“However, they put a lot of pressure on me and I agreed to the rent being back paid,” Anne said.  

But Hondo had also removed the opt-out clause in the contract, which meant that Cornercopia would have to continue paying rent for three years regardless of what happened to the business.  

“Imagine if the pandemic was going to go on for three years – we would have been liable to carry on paying the rent for three years.  

“In terms of the level of insecurity going on around the pandemic I could not agree to sign up to something which would mean that I could be, if the business went under, still liable for three years’ worth of rent. It seemed completely unreasonable to me. 

“Eventually I talked with my solicitor and said that I would accept opt-out after a year.  

“My solicitor thought that we were going to reach an agreement but on the final day of negotiations Hondo just went completely quiet, didn’t answer any phone calls, said they wouldn’t extend the negotiation period and wouldn’t agree. 

“My solicitor told me it was then too late to apply to court and we had lost our legal rights, which was really quite distressing after we’d held onto them for 11 years and were one of the few traders left in the market that had them,” Anne said.  

Hondo had also asked for a rent increase of 40 per cent on the other two units, which were out of contract.   

“I said that I thought that would be impossible and completely out of sync with what was happening in the world. It negated any benefits we might have got from being able to take out loans or Government grants. We couldn’t and didn’t agree to that,” Anne said.  

Cornercopia had to give up one unit in June last year to cut costs. 

“We’re just really fed up with the lack of security that traders have and all the power that Hondo has to ask for whatever rent they want,” Anne said.  

She said she knew the business would have support from the community if they wanted to fight but found the process up to this point too stressful.  

“Things are difficult enough as it is trying to keep your business going during these times,” Anne said.   

Cornercopia has another home in Streatham, which opened on Monday (April 12).  

“We feel very sad about leaving Brixton Village because it has been our home for 11 years. 

“We’ve put a lot of ourselves, energy, and ideas into the market and we feel very sad for the other traders who are in a very vulnerable position. I hope that something can be done to give people more rights and security.  

“The only businesses that will be able to come into the market are businesses that already pay high rents, have a proven success record, and probably two or three units elsewhere,” Anne said.  

A spokesperson for Hondo said it was “very sorry to hear that Cornercopia has decided to leave Brixton Village and not renew their leases”.    

“We inherited these discussions and reached a commercial agreement with Cornercopia and their advisers.   

“Both parties were represented by property lawyers to complete the matter and a final lease was agreed and circulated.  

“Hondo signed, but unfortunately a countersigned version was never received back.   

“The option to renew the leases has remained on the table for Cornercopia right up until their decision to exit.    

“It is not legally possible to ‘strip away’ tenancy rights in the way reports suggest.  This aspect was always within the control of Cornercopia and their advisers. 

“We wish them the best of luck with their Streatham business and all future ventures,” they said.