Self storage

[Liam118]

Good evening,

So, in a nutshell,

I am looking to invest some money into setting up a self storage container business in Yorkshire.

I have done the maths and (dependent on ground rent) everything adds up.

However,

I am struggling to find much/any information regarding actually getting set up. The nitty gritty, land, legislation, fees, councils etc…

I am planning on renting a plot of land, ideally with existing palisade fencing already in place.

The problem I have at this point is despite trawling the internet and various forums, I still feel I have nowhere near enough knowledge on the subject, so was wondering if anyone can help.

Ideally I would like someone who has set their own storage business up, but all help is gratefully received!

Many thanks,

Liam ?

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Hello Liam

I think its a viable business you never hear of one failing .
I do this on a very small scale for our commercial customers and it is something that I fell into
I have my storage in an HGV yard with an O licence for 20 trucks so different rules apply and the yard is already established

 

[fisicx]

A friend of mine does this. You need hard standing (or hard packed ground), lighting and security. Containers of all sizes are easy to obtain but customers expect internal lighting and often power. If you also offer caravan and other vehicle storage you become more marketable.

The only issue is the change of use. His plot was light industrial and the council got a bit iffy.

He also needed to resurface the access road and add security gates with keypad.

 

[UKSBD]

I know a couple of people who do this well, but!

The thing is, they both own the land already and for both of them it is part of another business.

1. A hire centre who had spare room in the yard for rows of containers plus the machinary and vehicles for moving containers.

2 . A business park with about 50 businesses and a spare bit of land where they could put some containers.

Would it work as just a main business on rented land where you also had to provide separate security?

 

[fisicx]

Asked my mate and it was the same - he owned the land.

 

[Liam118]

Hello Liam

I think its a viable business you never hear of one failing .
I do this on a very small scale for our commercial customers and it is something that I fell into
I have my storage in an HGV yard with an O licence for 20 trucks so different rules apply and the yard is already established

Hi, thanks for replying!

I don’t suppose you know this ins and outs of legislation regarding setting up at all?

Land, security, anything you have would be gratefully received! Thanks

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Hi, thanks for replying!

I don’t suppose you know this ins and outs of legislation regarding setting up at all?

Land, security, anything you have would be gratefully received! Thanks

As we are on an establish industrial site where you would expect to have a few containers we dont need any further compliancy

Security happens to have a 24 hour patrol on the industrial estate but they could not fight their way out of a paper bag if they got some real smoke

Our landlord has CCTV that he can view on his phone both my business and theirs is around the clock and theRE is always somebody around

For a proper site I would have high fences with barbed wire along the top with no buildings anything else close to the fence .coded gated and good CCTV