Renting a business unit (property)

coffeehound

Can anyone advise on some questions about renting a business unit please.  
Is it necessary to be a business, or can an individual rent one?
Are business rate levels comparable with domestic charges?
Is it necessary to be doing the same activity as the designated use, or is it okay to use any as a storage unit?
Any other gotchas?
Thanks

daveyjp

Following applies to England and Wales.

Anyone can rent one, but they must be running a business.
Business rates are set by central government and collected by local authority.  Local authority will advise on the charges.  There are lots of reliefs for smaller properties and payment can be zero.
Planning dictates the use class.  B8 is warehousing so ensure the unit has that designation.
Lots of gotchas if you aren't used to dealing with business leases which are far removed from a housing tenancy agreement.

coffeehound

Ah sounds like that's not going to be feasible then.  Appreciate the info.

Grumpy_chap

coffeehound said:

is it okay to use any as a storage unit?

Would it be simpler and easier to rent a self-store space?
They seem to be everywhere.
Might even be cheaper overall than a whole unit with the additional costs that go with that.

coffeehound

Grumpy_chap said:

coffeehound said:

is it okay to use any as a storage unit?

Would it be simpler and easier to rent a self-store space?
They seem to be everywhere.
Might even be cheaper overall than a whole unit with the additional costs that go with that.

Yes I do have a storage unit already, but the costs are eye-watering.  I thought a business unit could also include a workspace and without the various limitations of storage only