Request ID: FOI-0161-2223 Date published: 24 May 2022
You asked
Please could you provide the following information:
1) the total sum of debt written off by TfL Commercial Development Property Management annually over the past 10 years.
2) what were the biggest ten individual debt write offs by TfL Commercial Development Property Management in the last 5 years and who were the beneficiaries? ie. how much was the debt written off, what was the property (or properties), and who was the tenant that benefited from the debt write off
3) how much debt is currently owed to TfL Commercial Development Property Management (ie. rent which is unpaid, outstanding or late, but has not been written off)
4) how many commercial properties does TfL Commercial Development Property Management let and what is the total rent (ballpark) due on the overall property portfolio?
5) how many commercial properties provided by TfL Commercial Development Property Management are vacant? Please provide this information for the last 3 years.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-0161-2223
Thank you for your request received on 26 April 2022 asking for information about our Commercial Development Department.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. The property management and rent collection service was outsourced in 2018/19. The system used to record the information requested in Q2 of your request was decommissioned following this. It would take over 18 hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested as we would need to create a system that was able to extract this data.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you were to remove Q2 of your request then we believe that we would be able to provide you with the remaining information that you have requested.
If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.
In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
