[Closed] Commercial Unit - Personal Use - Rates?

Council lockup? I had one and stored a kayak, a couple of shelves of stuff and some other crap. I kept my motorbike there and used to leave the car in the lockup if I was away on the bike for an overnight jaunt.

Depends on the local authority and the rateable value of the unit you find.

The local authority here is currently offering rates free if it’s your only premises and under the £12,000 rating threshold. That will probably change next April but I think all councils offer small business rate relief of up to 50% of the rates payable for single business premises.

Alternatively you may well find a friendly landlord who will do a good deal on a short let if you offer pick up the rates. You only have to pay them for 6 weeks and then the landlords rate free allowance will reset to 6 months from the unit becoming vacant. Could be win win if you can also claim rate relief as mentioned above.

Thanks for the replies.

BigButSlimmerBloke - I'm not sure if that will be big enough. Most of the council lockups round here (Fife) are standard garages. I've got a Land Rover Discovery with potential another at some point (Defender) and kayaks, maybe a boat and bikes to think of. I'm more looking at a workshop size space.

Thanks Sodajim. I won't pretend that all makes sense to me. What defines a unit as a commercial unit with rateable value? If I find a farmer with a spare barn, or an outbuilding on someone's land do is this still classed as something that I need to pay rates on? I'm trying to keep costs as low as possible, so paying any rates even at 50% on top of rent is not very appealing.

This all applies to England but if its rateable would depend on what the valuation office have decided when they assessed the premises. If it’s just a farmer renting out his barn now and again I suppose there’s a good chance that the rating office doesn’t even know. Farms aren’t really my area but I would imagine in that scenario the rates would be covered for what he pays overall for the farm so he could just charge you a bit of rent for cash perhaps and no one’s any wiser. If its set up as an business i.e as a rental investment of small barn/business units then they would have been assessed as such and separate rates would apply, but again depending how the landlord operates their short lets may they may just charge an all in rent.

I mentioned the 6 week rents as all landlords have to pay empty rates on their commercial premises now at full payable value. They get 6 months grace on industrial to try and find a new tenant but that’s it. If however the unit becomes let for a minimum of 6 weeks, with a new tenant picking up the rates in that time, their 6 month grace period is reset from the date of that vacation. I have heard, urrr hum… A canny landlord may hence be willing to do a good deal on a six week let i.e peppercorn rent if you pick up the rates in that time.

If you're in Scotland, you should get small business rate relief (or whatever they're calling it this week) - I pay no rates.

In scotland you'll get a 100% rates relief anyway so long as the premises isn't too big/valuable. You need to apply for that relief though and re-apply for it annually. Although once you made your first application you be sent a renewal form each year so the re-application isn't arduous

Ben, maccruiskeen - That sounds promising. So they waive the rates completely? If so, that would open up a huge number of opportunities close to my house.

Thats right: Info [url= http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/local-government/17999/11199/Scheme ]here.[/url]

The key to it is knowing what the rateable value of the properties you are looking at and being sure they're under the threshold. But I'd imagine anything you can afford/want to pay for will fall under.