Warning! Price Increase at Safestore Self Storage

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi OwL729

Safestore has asked us to post a response on its behalf. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on the forum.

We were sorry to learn that you have been unable to get answers to your questions so far.

We are focused on providing a quality service at the right price and our store teams regularly review our pricing to ensure we remain competitive.

Your business is valuable to us and we would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter further with you.

You can get in contact by either calling our support centre on 0800 444 800 or by emailing us at customerservice@safestore.co.uk.

Colin Purser

Jakes_3

On the first of October, all self storage companies have to charge VAT where some did not have to in the past. This was an odd arrangement and sometimes confused customers. The companies that didn't charge VAT have to now and they are mostly writing to tell customers that they are passing some or all of the extra cost on to them.

You can see some details at Lok'nStore's "VAT on self storage page". Lok'nStore are not increasing their prices as they already charged VAT (and even then offered their lowest prices guarantee). There may be other (probably smaller companies) in the same situation who do not have to put up their prices but the big ones are between 10% and 20% - the full VAT amount.

whitewing

If you have had stuff in storage for 6 months, do you need it anyway?

EmmaHerts

dacouch wrote: »

If the price rise is after October, it's probably due to the government introducing VAT on self storage from October

I use Safe Store and was told this is the reason prices are going up.

BigYellow

..........

PasturesNew

I've just moved mine to a 49 square feet container/drive up unit, 24 access, CCTV, etc. £52.50/month.

vuvuzela

BigYellow wrote: »

As many of you should be aware by now Safestore have had no choice but to add VAT on to there self storage as the Government have decided they would like a 20% stake in all self storage companies by 'forcing' them to charge VAT to there customers.

What is a shame about this process is that Safestore have decided the best way to do this is to just slap the VAT on top of the normal price rather then to incorporate it into the price.

Many of you that know a little bit about VAT may be thinking "Why can't Safestore claim the VAT back on there purchases instead of passing the cost on to there customers?"

Well Safestore did contemplate doing that and have even gone to the great length of writing a FAQ section on there website explaining that this is not possible.... Unfortunately this appears to be a lie.

Taken from the Safestore website -

safestore.co.uk/vat/existing-customers.aspx

• Why aren't Safestore picking up the VAT as some retailers have when there has been a VAT increase previously?
• Other retailers are able to claim large portions of VAT back on their expenditure, whereas Safestore has little Vatable expenditure on which to recover VAT.

• If you are now charging VAT to customers surely you are able to claim back VAT on your purchases and therefore you don't need to pass this increase to me?
• We are unable to claim any VAT on the vast majority of our expenditure (Property rates, payroll, interest, etc) and we were unable to claim the VAT incurred on the purchase and development of our buildings.

As I am sure many of you are aware Safestore LTD is a VAT registered company and are fully able to claim the VAT back on all of there costs including all the buildings that they have built over the past few years, which they would of paid VAT on.

So if you are a customer of Safestore are you left thinking "Why are they lying to me?"

Well maybe it could be because of the millions of pounds in tax rebates that they will now be getting for all the VAT that they have paid out over the past 5 years.


Do the actions of Safestore LTD look to you like they have there customers best interest at heart in this tough economic time? or are they just being greedy?

I don't pretend to be an expert in this matter but I am sure there will be a few VAT experts on MSE that could help to explain this further.

I smell a company employee of Big Yellow Storage who is too stupid to sign up with an anonymous name before slagging off the competition...
Oh, and do you have any basis and legal backup to this potentially actionable libellous rant ?

Azari

BigYellow wrote: »

As many of you should be aware by now Safestore have had no choice but to add VAT on to there self storage as the Government have decided they would like a 20% stake in all self storage companies by 'forcing' them to charge VAT to there customers.

What is a shame about this process is that Safestore have decided the best way to do this is to just slap the VAT on top of the normal price rather then to incorporate it into the price.

Many of you that know a little bit about VAT may be thinking "Why can't Safestore claim the VAT back on there purchases instead of passing the cost on to there customers?"

Well Safestore did contemplate doing that and have even gone to the great length of writing a FAQ section on there website explaining that this is not possible.... Unfortunately this appears to be a lie.

Taken from the Safestore website -

safestore.co.uk/vat/existing-customers.aspx

• Why aren't Safestore picking up the VAT as some retailers have when there has been a VAT increase previously?
• Other retailers are able to claim large portions of VAT back on their expenditure, whereas Safestore has little Vatable expenditure on which to recover VAT.

• If you are now charging VAT to customers surely you are able to claim back VAT on your purchases and therefore you don't need to pass this increase to me?
• We are unable to claim any VAT on the vast majority of our expenditure (Property rates, payroll, interest, etc) and we were unable to claim the VAT incurred on the purchase and development of our buildings.

As I am sure many of you are aware Safestore LTD is a VAT registered company and are fully able to claim the VAT back on all of there costs including all the buildings that they have built over the past few years, which they would of paid VAT on.

So if you are a customer of Safestore are you left thinking "Why are they lying to me?"

Well maybe it could be because of the millions of pounds in tax rebates that they will now be getting for all the VAT that they have paid out over the past 5 years.


Do the actions of Safestore LTD look to you like they have there customers best interest at heart in this tough economic time? or are they just being greedy?

I don't pretend to be an expert in this matter but I am sure there will be a few VAT experts on MSE that could help to explain this further.

I'm afraid that you are wrong on many counts here.

A storage company would have very little VAT to claim back in proportion to their income.

Most of their income will be spent providing a return on investment (or paying mortgages on buildings), and staff costs.

Neither of these incur VAT so there are no returns to be had there.

Things upon which they could claim some VAT back such as energy use, office supplies and insurance would yield a tiny amount compared to the VAT that they will be liable to on income.

motch

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've just moved mine to a 49 square feet container/drive up unit, 24 access, CCTV, etc. £52.50/month.

hi Pastures, just wondered whereabouts this is, I live in Ipswich