- Original Poster
- #1
Hi, I'm hoping someone may have some advice for our situation. Myself and my partner have a small creative business (LTD), building scenery and props for attractions, events etc, bringing in freelancers/sub contractors when we need a hand. Last year we began renting a workshop on a 7 year lease. When we moved in the business rates valuation was £12500, costing us £1080 in business rates a year on the small business rates relief. We weren't aware of revaluations unitl recently, now the property has been revalued at £15,200 meaning relief is no longer applicable and now looking at £7500 per year bill.
Another thing that may sting us is alterations we have made (again just finding out these effect rates). When we moved in the workshop was a shell, we needed a small cleaner space to use as a staff room come office (just me with a desk, a dining table and small kitchen unit) and another room used for cleaner painting work, so divided a section of the unit out of timber stud and plasterboard. We then added a 'lid' to these rooms to use the space above as storage for light goods, accessed when needed with a ladder (so not commonly used as workspace).
Another awkward corner of the workshop we added a wall to create a store room.
here are some images to hopefully explain a little better:
We have since found out that these different rooms may be rated differently, and at a complete loss as to whether these will increase the rates, or if some may be less valuable due to access/usage.
We are also struggling to understand if the space above the new rooms count as a mezzanine, and if so would this be the same cost as the workshop? The apex height is 1.8m, going down to zero in the eaves, here is an image to show what I mean:
Something which may help us, an artist friend of ours was looking for somewhere to work on his paintings and we let him use the spare room we had built, with him helping us out on occassion as a way of covering costs. It has worked out that he pretty much uses it full time now.
It has been suggested that we could sub-let the room to our friend, which he is more than happy to do, although access to his room is through our office space, into the workshop then to his room, so perhaps we need to create a route from the unit door to his room? (Not something he personally needs). It has also been suggested that we divide up our 'office' room to create a corridor to his room and section off the staff dining/kitchen area to create a communal space, which to me seems like a lot of faff and wondering if we need to build walls to determine those boundaries (if they would be applicable)?
Apologies for the long read, but long story short, we are trying to figure out if there is a way to adjust our space to bring those costs down, wether it is even necessary to alter, or perhaps we may be in a situation where we would be better off to rip it all out and re-build a sub lettable space (which we really do not want to do).
We are at a loss of where to look or who to speak to (after days trawling google etc), any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Many thanks
Another thing that may sting us is alterations we have made (again just finding out these effect rates). When we moved in the workshop was a shell, we needed a small cleaner space to use as a staff room come office (just me with a desk, a dining table and small kitchen unit) and another room used for cleaner painting work, so divided a section of the unit out of timber stud and plasterboard. We then added a 'lid' to these rooms to use the space above as storage for light goods, accessed when needed with a ladder (so not commonly used as workspace).
Another awkward corner of the workshop we added a wall to create a store room.
here are some images to hopefully explain a little better:
We have since found out that these different rooms may be rated differently, and at a complete loss as to whether these will increase the rates, or if some may be less valuable due to access/usage.
We are also struggling to understand if the space above the new rooms count as a mezzanine, and if so would this be the same cost as the workshop? The apex height is 1.8m, going down to zero in the eaves, here is an image to show what I mean:
Something which may help us, an artist friend of ours was looking for somewhere to work on his paintings and we let him use the spare room we had built, with him helping us out on occassion as a way of covering costs. It has worked out that he pretty much uses it full time now.
It has been suggested that we could sub-let the room to our friend, which he is more than happy to do, although access to his room is through our office space, into the workshop then to his room, so perhaps we need to create a route from the unit door to his room? (Not something he personally needs). It has also been suggested that we divide up our 'office' room to create a corridor to his room and section off the staff dining/kitchen area to create a communal space, which to me seems like a lot of faff and wondering if we need to build walls to determine those boundaries (if they would be applicable)?
Apologies for the long read, but long story short, we are trying to figure out if there is a way to adjust our space to bring those costs down, wether it is even necessary to alter, or perhaps we may be in a situation where we would be better off to rip it all out and re-build a sub lettable space (which we really do not want to do).
We are at a loss of where to look or who to speak to (after days trawling google etc), any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Many thanks
