Market Rent Only, MRO for short, lets a tied tenant of one of the big pub companies ask for a free-of-tie deal: no beer tie, an open-market rent. You only get the right after one of four events, and from the day after it you have 21 days to serve a written MRO notice. The pubco then has 28 days to come back with a proposed free-of-tie tenancy and rent, there's a three-month window to negotiate, and if you still can't agree the rent, it goes to an independent assessor. Very few tenants get that far. In 2024/25 there were 472 rent assessment and renewal events across the regulated pubcos and 88 accepted MRO notices. Under one in five. Here's the whole route, every clock on it, and the sums I'd want done before I served anything.
The official factsheet is accurate and reads like it was written for a solicitor. The pubco FAQs are written by the pubcos. Nothing walks you through it from the tenant's side of the bar with actual numbers in, so that's what this is. It isn't legal advice. If you're serious about it you'll want a surveyor and probably a solicitor too, and I'll come to what that means for your pocket.
Who it's for
MRO is part of the Pubs Code, which covers tied tenants of the largest pub companies in England and Wales. The Pubs Code Adjudicator's own figures show 8,331 tied agreements under the Code at the end of March 2026, spread across six companies, all named in the PCA's data tables. Smaller brewers and pubcos aren't covered, and Scotland has its own separate code. If you're not sure the Code applies to you, start with the coverage section of my tied price rises guide before you read another word of this one.
The four ways in
You can't serve an MRO notice whenever you fancy. One of four things has to happen first. The PCA calls them MRO events:
| MRO event | When it happens | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| You receive a rent assessment proposal | The day it reaches you | This one comes round on a schedule, so you can see it coming. Diary your review date now, not when the letter turns up. |
| Your tenancy comes up for renewal | Not protected by the 1954 Act: the first day it can renew under its terms. Protected: the day you get the landlord's section 25 notice, or the day they get your section 26 request. | An "investment exception" can block this route. Check whether one applies to your agreement. |
| An invoice shows a significant price increase on a tied product or service | The day you receive the invoice | The invoice is the trigger, not the price list letter that came a month earlier. What counts as "significant" is in my tied price rises guide. |
| You send a "relevant analysis" showing a trigger event | You have 56 days from the day after the trigger event to send it | It has to forecast your monthly trading for at least 12 months from the trigger date. That's a forecast you can only build from your own sales and stock figures. |
The clocks, day by day
This is the bit that catches people. Every step has its own deadline and nobody at the pubco has to remind you of yours. All of these come from the PCA's MRO factsheet:
| Step | Whose move | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Serve the MRO notice, in writing | You | Must reach the pubco within 21 days, starting the day after the MRO event |
| Acknowledge it | Pubco | As soon as reasonably possible |
| Full response: a proposed MRO-compliant tenancy and a proposed MRO rent, or a statement that they disagree it was an MRO event, with reasons | Pubco | 28 days, starting the day after they receive your notice |
| Refer to PCA arbitration if there's no full response, it's late, or they say no MRO event happened | You | 14 days, starting the day after their response period ends |
| Refer to arbitration if the full response is missing something, such as the rent | You | 14 days from the day you receive it |
| Negotiate (the "resolution period") | Both | Three months, starting the day after you receive the full response. You can end it early on 7 days' notice, but it runs at least 21 days. |
| Send an updated full response | Pubco, if it wants to | Within 7 days after the resolution period ends |
| Challenge the terms as not MRO-compliant | You | Arbitration referral within 21 days, starting the day after that 7-day window ends |
| Send the rent to an independent assessor | You | 21 days, same start. The terms have to be settled first, and once you refer the rent you can't go back and challenge the terms. |
Add it up. Notice day 21, response day 49, three months of talking, seven days, then 21 more. Even with nobody dragging their feet, you're looking at around 168 days, five and a half months, from the event to an independent assessor. Plan your cash for that, not for a quick answer.
What the notice has to say
The PCA publishes a template and I'd use it rather than writing your own. Whatever you send has to include:
- your name, postal address, phone number, and email if you have one
- the date you're sending it
- the name and address of the pub
- the date of the MRO event
- a description of the event that shows it is an MRO event
Only one MRO notice can be live for a pub at a time. Remember it has to reach the pubco inside 21 days, not leave you inside 21 days, so don't post it second class on day 20. Send it a way you can prove the date it arrived.
While it's live, the pubco can't move the goalposts either
Once the procedure is running, the pubco can't recover a higher rent from you, and it can't add new product or service ties or take existing ones away. (Those protections don't apply to 1954 Act renewals.) The procedure ends if you agree the new rent in writing or your tied tenancy ends. So serving a notice doesn't put you at risk of the deal getting worse while you talk. That's worth knowing when the nerves kick in on day 19.
What a proper MRO offer can and can't contain
The free-of-tie tenancy the pubco proposes has to be "MRO-compliant". The rules that matter most:
- It has to run at least as long as what's left of your current tenancy (this one doesn't apply to renewals).
- Some terms are automatically unreasonable: a break clause only the pubco can use, an insurance tie on anything other than buildings insurance, terms that are uncommon in ordinary untied leases, and, for 1954 Act tenancies, contracting out of sections 24 to 28.
- A tenancy at will isn't compliant.
- A brewer can still make you stock its own beer or cider, if the requirement is reasonable and doesn't make you buy it from a particular supplier.
That last one surprises people. Free of tie from a brewer-owned pubco can still mean their lager on the bar. The difference is you buy it wherever you get the best price.
The sums to do before you serve anything
MRO comes down to one question. Is the tie costing you more than the extra rent, plus everything you'd have to pay for yourself once you're out of it? You need four numbers to answer it:
| Number | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Your real barrelage | Your own counts, not the pubco's figures. Kegs used = full kegs at the last count + deliveries − full kegs now. An 11-gallon keg is a third of a barrel. My empty kegs guide shows the method. |
| The price gap per keg | Your tied invoice price against at least two written free-trade quotes for the same products. Not a figure off a forum. |
| The rent difference | The proposed MRO rent minus what you pay now. |
| What you'd pay for yourself | Cellar service and tech cover, insurance, any deposit, professional fees, your share of an independent assessor if it gets that far, and where you stand on dilapidations. |
Here's the shape with made-up numbers, so nobody mistakes this for a quote. A pub selling four 11-gallon kegs a week gets through 208 kegs a year, about 69 barrels. If your free-trade quotes come in £50 a keg under your tied price, that's £10,400 a year. If the MRO rent comes back £7,000 higher than now, you're £3,400 up before cellar cover and fees. Some pubs, that's worth the hassle. Some, it isn't.
The same £50 looks bigger per pint. An 11-gallon keg is 88 pints on paper, so it's about 57p a pint. On the £5.34 average pint, which is £4.45 once the VAT's out, 57p is nearly 13 points of GP. That's the number that makes tenants' eyes light up. Just don't forget the rent goes the other way.
What decides the whole thing is barrelage, and the only barrelage you can trust is your own count. If you've never measured kegs used against your till, do that for three months before any trigger event comes round. You'll also find out how many pints each keg really sells, which changes the per-pint sum.
It's a lever as much as an exit
The PCA doesn't publish how many MRO notices end in a free-of-tie lease, so I'm not going to make up a figure. What it has published is telling. In its 2021 research, one tenant said they were £65,000 a year better off after using the MRO process to negotiate a better tied deal. The same research found more lessees than tenants used MRO, and more experienced operators, particularly in London and the South East.
And the gap between knowing and doing is huge. The PCA's 2026 tenant survey found 70% of tied tenants knew about MRO. Yet accepted notices have fallen from 23.8% of rent assessment and renewal events in 2020/21 to 18.6% in 2024/25. My guess, and it is a guess, is that 21 days just isn't long enough to do the sums from cold. So do them before the event, with the barrelage counted and the quotes in a drawer before any letter lands.
What it costs you
If the rent ends up with an independent assessor, the PCA's research says the tenant pays half the assessor's fees. Tenants in that research also raised deposits and terminal dilapidations as up-front costs that put them off. Surveyor and solicitor fees are on top. There's no published typical bill and I'm not inventing one. Get two quotes from a surveyor who does Pubs Code work before you start, so the cost is a known number in your sums, not a surprise in month four.
What I'd do this month, before anything triggers
- Find your rent review date and your renewal date. Put both in the phone with a reminder a month before.
- Start counting kegs used per line every week. Three months of it gives you a barrelage nobody can argue with.
- Get two written free-trade quotes for your five biggest lines. Prices move, so date them.
- Keep every tied invoice. The price-rise trigger is the invoice, and so is your evidence.
- Download the PCA's MRO notice template and read it once, calmly, now.
Where StockTap fits, and where it doesn't
StockTap won't serve your MRO notice, compare free-trade prices or tell you whether to go. That's a surveyor's job and yours. What it does is the counting that the sums rest on: kegs counted or weighed by line, the till compared against what actually went, and Scan Delivery Note pulling cost prices straight off your invoices so the tied price per product is sitting in a report, not a shoebox. If you'd rather not type your bar in, send me your last stocktake and I'll set it up for you.
If you do go free of tie, the pubco's audits stop and your stock control becomes entirely yours. My tied vs free-of-tie stocktaking guide covers what changes.
Common questions
How long do I have to serve an MRO notice?
The notice has to reach the pub company within 21 days, starting the day after the MRO event. The events are receiving a rent assessment proposal, your tenancy coming up for renewal, an invoice showing a significant tied price increase, or sending a relevant analysis showing a trigger event.
How long does the pub company have to respond to an MRO notice?
It must acknowledge the notice as soon as reasonably possible and send a full response within 28 days, starting the day after it receives your notice. If it agrees an MRO event happened, the full response includes a proposed MRO-compliant tenancy and a proposed MRO rent.
How long is the MRO negotiation period?
The resolution period lasts three months, starting the day after you receive the full response. You can end it early by giving 7 days' notice, but it lasts at least 21 days. The pub company can then send an updated response within 7 days.
Who pays for the independent assessor in an MRO dispute?
According to the Pubs Code Adjudicator's research, the tenant pays half of the independent assessor's fees. Surveyor and legal fees are separate.
Can a brewer still make me stock its beer after MRO?
Yes, in some cases. A brewer's stocking requirement can be MRO-compliant if it is reasonable, covers only the brewer's or its group's own beer or cider, and doesn't require you to buy from a particular supplier.
Sources
- The four MRO events, the 56-day relevant analysis window, MRO notice contents and the 21-day deadline, 28-day full response, 14-day and 21-day arbitration and independent assessor referrals, the three-month resolution period, 7-day updated response, MRO-compliant tenancy rules, stocking requirements and restrictions during the procedure: Pubs Code Adjudicator, Market Rent Only (MRO) Rights factsheet, checked 8 October 2026.
- 8,331 Pubs Code agreements at March 2026 across six pub companies; MRO events and accepted MRO notices 2020/21 to 2024/25 (663 and 158, 23.8%; 472 and 88, 18.6%): Pubs Code Adjudicator, Pubs Code Data Insights Tables, June 2026, checked 8 October 2026.
- One tenant £65,000 a year better off after using MRO to negotiate a tied deal; more lessees and experienced operators using MRO; tenant pays half the independent assessor's fees; deposits and terminal dilapidations raised as up-front costs: Pubs Code Adjudicator, Findings of Market Rent Only research and PCA response, published 23 November 2021, checked 8 October 2026.
- 70% of tied tenants aware of MRO: Pubs Code Adjudicator, Tied Tenant Survey 2026 results, published 10 June 2026.
- The regulations themselves: The Pubs Code etc. Regulations 2016, legislation.gov.uk.
- £5.34 average pint: the Morning Advertiser's 2026 pint survey, as used in my average pint price guide. The 208-keg worked example, 57p a pint and the GP-point sum are my own arithmetic on made-up numbers.