DOMINION NEWS

Grey River Argus, 2 December 1943, Page 3

DOMINION NEWS

SALE OF HOTEL LEASE. AUCKLAND, Nov. 30. . Auckland Urban Land Sales Committee consented to the sale or the lease of the Exchange Hotel, Parnell, by Thomas E. Tasker (Mr. Towle), to Cyril J. K. Taylor (Mr. Nutsford), the price of £8750 including £7250 for the lease and £l5OO for furniture and fittings, consumable stock and stores to be sold at valuation. Mr. Towle said that the freehold of the property was vested in' the Auckland Grammar School Board, and in 1925, it had been leased to Hancock and Company, Ltd., and through a process of transfer the vendor was now a sublessee The lease had four years and eight months to run. What was actually being sold was the goodwill and the publican’s license, and the attendant sub-lease. Without the license there would be no payment foi’ goodwill. The rent of the property was £2O a week, reducible to £8 5s a week if the sub-lessee brought all his liquor from the lessors. “Since Tasker took over the hotel, he had been paying a penal rent, as he stocked all brands of liquor. The lease was of no value without the publican’s license, that the license was purely personal property, and was not an interest in land, and that as all the consideration money was being; paiu for the license and its goodwill, the committee was not concerned with the transfer of the lease. Mr. Meredith (for the Crown) offered no objections to consent being given, except for the point that a contract was drawn in one lump sum for the lot. Leave was granted to Mr. Towle to amend the agreement for sale and purchase to provide that the whole of the purchase price of £7250 for the lease would be payable in respect of the license, nothing being paid for the goodwill of the lease.