Mothballed sites & other cash tips
Discussion
Some tips to start from us, please feel free to add more and I'll keep adding to the thread too.
Water - if you are with SES water they've agreed to allow mothballed sites to have a change of class to "Temporarily Vacant" that means that all charges are avoided while the site is mothballed. Below is their official announcement:
[i]We have worked with Ofwat, Defra, MOSL, Retailers and Wholesalers to agree measures to help customers who have by Government instruction closed their site(s) and stopped or nearly stopped using water. As an Industry, we have agreed to change property status to Temporarily Vacant due to Covid-19 for those site(s) forced to close. This means charges will no longer apply to closed sites from 24/03/2020 and will be regularly reviewed.
If any of your customers have closed their site(s) let me know straight away, unless you have already have done so and we will make arraignments to have these sites placed to temporary vacant as soon as we can.
If you don’t let us know, sites will be charged on estimates based on previous consumption levels – something we should all avoid.[/i]
"As an industry" implies that this will apply to any English water company, not just SES, so worth calling your water supplier to find out.
Energy -
If you can't get access to read the meters, take the last known actual reading and add a handful of kWh's and submit as an Actual to avoid estimates based on previous consumption. Meter Readers (that are still working) can't get access either at the moment unless you have external meters.
Energy contracts will still expire and go to out of contract rates, so make sure you take advantage of the very low energy market and lock in your next energy contract (for start dates upto 12mths ahead it's probably worth it)
Merchant Card Terminals
Call your provider they may waive the rental while site is mothballed, or at least agree to add the skipped months to the end of the term to aid cashflow now.
Copiers
Many now bill on cost per copy - like energy make sure you submit a low estimate so you are not billed on estimated previous consumption.
Mobiles
If you have a hardware fund, call up and get it paid out as cash and make sure homeworkers are using home wifi not the data plan OR make sure you check March's usage when the bill comes through in early April and add a data bundle if you need to.
Office365
If you pay annually too Microsoft, resellers can do monthly cheaper than the annual equivalent and Microsoft will refund you the unused months, giving you a cash injection and lower running costs.
Water - if you are with SES water they've agreed to allow mothballed sites to have a change of class to "Temporarily Vacant" that means that all charges are avoided while the site is mothballed. Below is their official announcement:
[i]We have worked with Ofwat, Defra, MOSL, Retailers and Wholesalers to agree measures to help customers who have by Government instruction closed their site(s) and stopped or nearly stopped using water. As an Industry, we have agreed to change property status to Temporarily Vacant due to Covid-19 for those site(s) forced to close. This means charges will no longer apply to closed sites from 24/03/2020 and will be regularly reviewed.
If any of your customers have closed their site(s) let me know straight away, unless you have already have done so and we will make arraignments to have these sites placed to temporary vacant as soon as we can.
If you don’t let us know, sites will be charged on estimates based on previous consumption levels – something we should all avoid.[/i]
"As an industry" implies that this will apply to any English water company, not just SES, so worth calling your water supplier to find out.
Energy -
If you can't get access to read the meters, take the last known actual reading and add a handful of kWh's and submit as an Actual to avoid estimates based on previous consumption. Meter Readers (that are still working) can't get access either at the moment unless you have external meters.
Energy contracts will still expire and go to out of contract rates, so make sure you take advantage of the very low energy market and lock in your next energy contract (for start dates upto 12mths ahead it's probably worth it)
Merchant Card Terminals
Call your provider they may waive the rental while site is mothballed, or at least agree to add the skipped months to the end of the term to aid cashflow now.
Copiers
Many now bill on cost per copy - like energy make sure you submit a low estimate so you are not billed on estimated previous consumption.
Mobiles
If you have a hardware fund, call up and get it paid out as cash and make sure homeworkers are using home wifi not the data plan OR make sure you check March's usage when the bill comes through in early April and add a data bundle if you need to.
Office365
If you pay annually too Microsoft, resellers can do monthly cheaper than the annual equivalent and Microsoft will refund you the unused months, giving you a cash injection and lower running costs.
Excellent start. Interested by "English" in the context of water. My business is with Castle Water (transferred from Thames Water) who are of course Scottish. They're also useless in my experience, but I'll give them a call 
There has been debate about offices / businesses that are closed getting classified as "empty" for business rates purposes. I heard this from a business rates consultant, but haven't heard any more. Has anyone had any luck with their council on that front?
A counter-tip from me: check your insurance policies about what to do if premises are empty. You may have to have somebody go in every week or so to avoid falling foul of clauses that void the insurance if the property is empty for more than XX days at a time. The same applies to home insurance if you have more than 1 home (I don't, but I have relatives who do).
There has been debate about offices / businesses that are closed getting classified as "empty" for business rates purposes. I heard this from a business rates consultant, but haven't heard any more. Has anyone had any luck with their council on that front?
A counter-tip from me: check your insurance policies about what to do if premises are empty. You may have to have somebody go in every week or so to avoid falling foul of clauses that void the insurance if the property is empty for more than XX days at a time. The same applies to home insurance if you have more than 1 home (I don't, but I have relatives who do).
One thing for everyone to watch out for: check your insurance policies for rules about leaving premises empty. If you have buildings insurance through a landlord, check with them too. There may be an additional premium to pay, but it is best to deal with that now rather than be uninsured.
Just dealt with this on 2 properties today, occurred to me I’d not seen it mentioned here.
Just dealt with this on 2 properties today, occurred to me I’d not seen it mentioned here.
skwdenyer said:
There has been debate about offices / businesses that are closed getting classified as "empty" for business rates purposes. I heard this from a business rates consultant, but haven't heard any more. Has anyone had any luck with their council on that front?
.
I'd be interested to know which business rates consultant. Its certainly something that is taxing many brains at present, but strictly according to the law they are not vacant unless all possessions are removed excluding furniture. So IT, contents of cupboards, filing cabinets comments etc potentially have to be removed.
Reality is though some Councils will give relieve, others wont. There may be an ability for small businesses to claim hardship.
Chrisgr31 said:
skwdenyer said:
There has been debate about offices / businesses that are closed getting classified as "empty" for business rates purposes. I heard this from a business rates consultant, but haven't heard any more. Has anyone had any luck with their council on that front?
.
I'd be interested to know which business rates consultant. Its certainly something that is taxing many brains at present, but strictly according to the law they are not vacant unless all possessions are removed excluding furniture. So IT, contents of cupboards, filing cabinets comments etc potentially have to be removed.
Reality is though some Councils will give relieve, others wont. There may be an ability for small businesses to claim hardship.
Agree with you on the usual interpretation, but equally I suspect one of the “big boys” fancies testing this one in court (at their client’s expense, of course!)
skwdenyer said:
One thing for everyone to watch out for: check your insurance policies for rules about leaving premises empty. If you have buildings insurance through a landlord, check with them too. There may be an additional premium to pay, but it is best to deal with that now rather than be uninsured.
Just dealt with this on 2 properties today, occurred to me I’d not seen it mentioned here.
Turn your water off at the main stop cock as well, it's often in the small print that it must be off if the property is vacant for x or more days. Just dealt with this on 2 properties today, occurred to me I’d not seen it mentioned here.
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