Your tales of 'going it alone'...

[Guest]

[Nemo]

Just to add my experience for registering for business rates. It took the VOA many months before my property was valued and then a while longer whilst the BR section at the Council then put me in the system. In the end it was the best part of a year for one property. I simply put aside the money to cover the expected bill.

[johnandtahra]

We've budgeted for full council tax in the first year anyway; sure, it'd be great to avoid this, but if it takes a while at least there is no surprise.

I take it that FHL qualification (from an HMRC point of view) does not depend on the property being business-rated? Our (rough) plan is to launch and make the property as available as we see fit, and kick off the business-rating once we determine that the property is likely to exceed the threshold (140 days?)

[Guest]

[Nemo]

If you're making the property available for 140 days then you qualify for business rates. It's much easier to register for rates up front I'd suggest, than pay Council Tax if you don't need to. Rates are likely to be much cheaper than Council Tax, plus depending on your circumstances you qualify for small business rate relief, which could mean zero rates for the immediate future and it is being extended for another year I believe. The one thing rates doesn't cover is refuse collection.

https://www.gov.uk/introduction-to-busi ... ommodation

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-r ... ate-relief