We helped GSC Grays bring massive value to their landowner clients by successfully recovering seven years of underpayments.

Client

GSC Grays land agents

Highlights

The results for our client's landowners were:

• Full back payment of underpaid land rents, going back seven years

• Full payment of audit fees by landowners’ energy company

• A detailed report on the overall performance of their sites.

Why did they come to us?

GSC Grays’ landowner clients had been receiving royalty payments from their wind farm since its commissioning date, but they suspected something was amiss.

The agents weren’t involved with the day-to-day management of land rent payments, so they recommended our team to help.

What was our approach?

Using a wide range of metrics, current legislation and today’s market prices, we recalculated all past payments and carefully reviewed the landowner’s lease agreements. We immediately spotted an error.

We then worked closely with the site operator, on the landowners’ behalf, to fix the underpayments and make sure these mistakes wouldn’t happen again.

At the end of our review, we gave the landowner a detailed audit report on the wind farm’s performance, including how many homes the site has powered to date.

By comparing their lease agreement and the site’s performance to other UK wind farms, we were able to highlight the huge value our client and their landowners are bringing to the environment.

We found the report very thorough and really interesting and were pleased that the payments have been corrected… we appreciate your help with this very much.” 

-David, wind farm landowner

Results

• Successfully identified and agreed with the site operator the correction of the past underpayments over a seven year period.
• Worked in partnership with GSC Grays, adding value to them and our mutual landowner clients at no cost to either party, as well as saving them time.
• Delivered a detailed audit report on the wind farm’s performance, including its efficiency and how many homes the site has powered to date.
• Our report also evaluated how these lease agreements compared to other UK wind farms, highlighting the real value that our partners and their landowners are making to the environment.
• Worked independently, saving our partners time and costs, whilst achieving the best outcome.

Prior to the review I had a good understanding of the rent methodology but could never undertake an audit to the same extent as AfE. We had been asked by landowners to review their rent payments, but as Land Agents we’re not qualified to undertake a full audit. We’ve been very pleased to recommend AfE to all our clients and have received positive feedback all round. I have received nothing but positive feedback from the landowners.”

-Chris Thyer MRICS FAAV, Land agent, GSC Grays

It was great working in collaboration with GSC Grays. To find out more about their work, click the icons below: