OV9

A complete flight of fancy right now, but seeing as I can’t make my garage at home any wider what’s the pitfall(s) of having a small industrial unit for personal use ? Punitive business rates ? Insurance difficulties ? Other ?

I’m imagining something about the size of four cars. Just for storage and occasional spannering. Nothing particularly complex.

Neil is your man for this. He rents a lockup away from his house for the racecar.

In planning terms it will likely need to have B8 storage as a permitted use. Which an industrial unit likely will have. Not sure on business rates etc.

Business rates. Occupier is responsible for these, and they apply even if you're not using the unit after a relatively short grace period. If you have a commercial lease you are generally responsible for full repair of the building - either by way of a service charge or directly responsible.

And commercial buildings tend to have a design life of perhaps 25-40 years, not the indefinite lifespan of a dwelling.

No idea what your financial situation is so please feel free to ignore this post.

A friend was looking into doing something similar, but quickly found that renting or buying a larger place and leasing out the extra space "at cost" to some known people would have made the whole thing break even (and have them willing to stick around as he wasn't going to be making a profit from it). Might be worth considering?

We have looked (are still looking) for a solution similar to what Mr. Cola suggests. Between myself and my garage co-habitee, we need space for around 8 cars, but ideally would find a place with about double that, and make the whole venture net-profitable by letting the remaining spaces as storage (with agreed access to facilities like a ramp, tools, cleaning equipment etc). Smaller places with a bit of extra yard space could be expanded using shipping containers (about £1500 a pop). We're looking to buy, but if you're renting, there may be limitations on sub-letting or adding semi-permanent structures.
Also, I don't know if its the same in Englandshire, but in Scotland automotive use requires specific zoning (Class 5 IIRC) meaning that places to rent for cars are in very short supply - purchase and commercial loan look very attractive to me, rather than renting.

Re: business rates - there is a small business excemption, which means that if you set up a limited company, and that company turns over less than a certain amount (can't remember the threshold), and the rateable value is less than £15k (IIRC), you're let off. There's a sliding scale for higher rateable values.
I think (but don't quote me!) you can also do it in a private name and not pay rates, so long as the "garage" is within 1/4 mile of your principle private residence.

Oh and worth mentioning that pre-fab steel sheds are *very* cheap. If you're buying, it may work out better/cheaper to find a suitable brownfield site and stick your own building on it.

A mate of mine had a unit at a local farm that they use for storage and occasional spannering. I think it has running water and power. It would fit about 10 cars quite happily. He shared it with another guy. He may be looking for another partner as they don't do as much spannering anymore.

Carl.

That's some good info there, thanks guys. From what I've read online, premises with rateable value <£12k get 100% exemption and pay no business rates. From £12k-£15k there's tapered relief until at £15k the relief is 0% and you're paying normal business rates. The government website has really good info on the rateable values of properties, including how it was calculated for each property:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/business ... ind/search

From that I've deduced that suitable premises do exist in the local area - around 100m² and RV < £12k. They're not necessarily available...

Carlos - if it's local that might be of interest. I'll PM you.