Not sure if this is the best place to ask but thought I'd ask anyway...we're still house hunting and we're off to look at a property on Wednesday that doesn't have quite enough room in the garden for a garden office studio which is what I ideally wanted; however it does have a 10m long double/tandem garage.
This would probably serve as a good office, by converting the back half of the garage into an office and leaving the front half as a usable garage. It would probably be cheaper than a decent garden studio too.
I'm still looking into the issue of planning permission (it's a bit unclear whether it would be necessary, assuming permitted development rights haven't been removed) but I'm really not sure whether this would potentially make the converted office liable to business rates. Does anybody know?
From what I understand, if there's still an element of mixed use then business rates shouldn't apply. This could be done by making the office double as a summer house (and I do like the idea of sticking some fancy bi-folding doors on and building a decked patio off the building). Throw some seating and maybe a TV in there. Or would the fact that only half the garage building is being used as an office with the other half still a garage be enough to make it mixed use?
Is this likely to be a problem?
This would probably serve as a good office, by converting the back half of the garage into an office and leaving the front half as a usable garage. It would probably be cheaper than a decent garden studio too.
I'm still looking into the issue of planning permission (it's a bit unclear whether it would be necessary, assuming permitted development rights haven't been removed) but I'm really not sure whether this would potentially make the converted office liable to business rates. Does anybody know?
From what I understand, if there's still an element of mixed use then business rates shouldn't apply. This could be done by making the office double as a summer house (and I do like the idea of sticking some fancy bi-folding doors on and building a decked patio off the building). Throw some seating and maybe a TV in there. Or would the fact that only half the garage building is being used as an office with the other half still a garage be enough to make it mixed use?
Is this likely to be a problem?
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