There have been some pretty serious conversations between landlords and retailers in the past week as the arrival of the September quarterly rent day last week brought two issues to a head.

Firstly, it was the first rent day since the campaign to pay rents monthly kicked off in August.

Secondly - and more importantly - many retailers found the demand to pay three months rent in one go too much to swallow.

As we revealed on our front page last week, a handful of major retailers - such as House of Fraser and All Saints - asked to be allowed to pay monthly.

They did this, not in a confrontational way as some had feared, but simply because the trading environment is so hard. Most of the rebels paid up on time, ahead of a big meeting on the issue tomorrow.

Other retailers such as Joy, Rosebys and Miss Sixty went into administration, while MFI required an emergency rescue and Hardy Amies teetered on the brink.

The fact that so much activity took place around the rent payment day surely lends weight to the argument that quarterly in advance rent payments should be consigned to the dustbin once and for all.

It doesn't do anyone - landlords or tenants - any good to have these four peaks of activity in the year and the frenetic spurts of activity, including businesses going under, which always surround them.

Everyone I spoke to in the property industry last week said there was a huge amount of bartering and negotiation going on, exemplified by MFI's demand for a rent holiday on those stores it intends to keep open.

Some lively discussions are an inevitable function of a healthy market. But, when a contract is in place, collecting rent surely shouldn't be this hard?

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