Renting Office Space Privately
Discussion
The company I work for has been 100% work from home since day 1 of the first lockdown. They're now making moves to get rid of the office and be fully remote permanently.
As the covid situation improves, a group of us have been chatting about maybe renting a small office suite to work in once the world is in a position where it's safe to do so. I know we could find a co-working space or serviced office, but there aren't many round here while there is plenty of empty office space of about the right size.
We're just a bunch of office workers, not an actual company as such. Anyone able to advise whether landlords would deal with one of us as tenant (probably me) or if we'd need to set up Lonely Nerds Ltd in order to comply with commercial contracts?
What would the situation be with business rates?
As the covid situation improves, a group of us have been chatting about maybe renting a small office suite to work in once the world is in a position where it's safe to do so. I know we could find a co-working space or serviced office, but there aren't many round here while there is plenty of empty office space of about the right size.
We're just a bunch of office workers, not an actual company as such. Anyone able to advise whether landlords would deal with one of us as tenant (probably me) or if we'd need to set up Lonely Nerds Ltd in order to comply with commercial contracts?
What would the situation be with business rates?
I am an asset manager for a commercial property firm and we would take you on as the tenant but that would not be advisable from your point of view as you would be fully liable personally for all the lease liabilities.
If you were to set up an off-the-shelf limited company we would accept that company as the tenant but would then want one of you to stand as a guarantor so that wouldn’t assist you. Furthermore there is quite a bit of red tape involved in the administration of a limited company which would make it unviable from your perspective.
In my view there are only two ways to do this: either persuade your employer to take on the lease for this small local office or go down the serviced-office route.
Happy to assist further if you want more detailed advice - just message me.
Whereabouts in the country are you (just in case we’ve got something ;-) ?
Jack
If you were to set up an off-the-shelf limited company we would accept that company as the tenant but would then want one of you to stand as a guarantor so that wouldn’t assist you. Furthermore there is quite a bit of red tape involved in the administration of a limited company which would make it unviable from your perspective.
In my view there are only two ways to do this: either persuade your employer to take on the lease for this small local office or go down the serviced-office route.
Happy to assist further if you want more detailed advice - just message me.
Whereabouts in the country are you (just in case we’ve got something ;-) ?
Jack
Edited by FazerBoy on Friday 8th January 19:56
agent006 said:
The company I work for has been 100% work from home since day 1 of the first lockdown. They're now making moves to get rid of the office and be fully remote permanently.
As the covid situation improves, a group of us have been chatting about maybe renting a small office suite to work in once the world is in a position where it's safe to do so. I know we could find a co-working space or serviced office, but there aren't many round here while there is plenty of empty office space of about the right size.
We're just a bunch of office workers, not an actual company as such. Anyone able to advise whether landlords would deal with one of us as tenant (probably me) or if we'd need to set up Lonely Nerds Ltd in order to comply with commercial contracts?
What would the situation be with business rates?
When the time comes, it might be worth trying a serviced office for a month or two just to see how much you genuinely will use it. What you don't want to do is take on say a 3 year lease with quarterly rent up front and find that you've all got so used to WFH that the office is a "once a week visit if that" for people and becomes unviable. Particularly if you are the guarantor on the lease.As the covid situation improves, a group of us have been chatting about maybe renting a small office suite to work in once the world is in a position where it's safe to do so. I know we could find a co-working space or serviced office, but there aren't many round here while there is plenty of empty office space of about the right size.
We're just a bunch of office workers, not an actual company as such. Anyone able to advise whether landlords would deal with one of us as tenant (probably me) or if we'd need to set up Lonely Nerds Ltd in order to comply with commercial contracts?
What would the situation be with business rates?
In terms of business rates you can get 100% Small Business Rates Relief if you only have one office and the ratable value of the building is under 15K.
agent006 said:
We're just a bunch of office workers, not an actual company as such. Anyone able to advise whether landlords would deal with one of us as tenant (probably me) or if we'd need to set up Lonely Nerds Ltd in order to comply with commercial contracts?
I highly doubt this would come to fruition. Even if you could solve the immediate issues you identify in your post, you would just then need to solve the next layer of issues - for example, what happens if a person moves jobs, do they still have to contribute to the lease costs? Are you going to allow other new staff to use your office space - what criteria are you going to use? Are there any risks of discrimination etc.I would move to a new employer; one who values camaraderie and providing a nice working environment for their employees. And who recognises the social and friendship aspects of working as a team, rather than just the transactional aspects of a job.
I think you might also find some resistance once your employer realises your plans - they might wonder why you wanted to go to the trouble and expense of running your own office with the costs, IT hassles, contract issues etc. I would think they might imagine they even might think you might try and setup as a competitor to them.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff