The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:25 pm**

Hellfire and brimstone

Imagine the scene :-

You live in the crowded south east. Your business has been expanding steadily and for 18 months you have been searching for some premises, a yard or suchlike. You need to be in your demographic area for efficiency and logistics, you do a lot in the office these days but need to be close to sites. Home is 20 mins away, current home office involves kids and noise

. You have p/permission for a nice extension which cannot start till the vans/small plant/excess stock/staff cars and the likes are away from the house. You've lost 2 builders because of the delays since planning. Land/cheap units/farmland just not available round here, the proverbial rocking horse poo. You have contacts out there listening all over.

You find a massive part disused hidden piece of land, owned by a utility company. You will need to do fencing/drainage/security/services, all budgetted for but landlord will not discuss considering alterations to certain clauses in the lease (like what is a "reasonable contribution" towards the whole site's maintenance - i am only tenant with 10% of whole, or "yes you can install services and we insist on a fence but you are not allowed to dig anywhere" ???) without you paying a large non-refundable bond upfront. All lease items are dealbreakers.

You leave it on back burner as you have found a piece of land in the rear disused area of a local garden centre. Perfect location. All services on site plus loo's, car parking, cafe etc etc. Oh, and you would have a target clientele driving past your signage every day. No brainer that its a much better option. It reinforces totally the drawbacks of original planned place, to the extent its almost not an option.

You spend the next four months organising it as there are that many layes of management and outside companies involved. Eventually two months ago all is good, and they are preparing Heads of Terms. They insist it will all be done as they want it sorted in no more than a month. On the strength of this you buy a portacabin, gates, book out some s/h fencing, a container etc etc. You get offered some mowers etc none runners but perfect for parts etc so you snap them up.

A month goes by then there is a problem, theyve decided to redevelop the rear of the site, been planning it two years but didnt tell the people you have been dealing with regarding the lease ??? They come back to you with a plan for a smaller area in a different part of site, for the same rent. You reluctantly agree as you are out of the country for 3 weeks on holiday at the time, and you have declined loads of work for as soon as you get back Your staff have looked at the feasibility for you and it is still a definite goer so you have a meeting arranged for the day you get back.

They need to bring the meeting forward due to their on staff holidays. You bring your family home a day early as there is so much riding on this. Meeting happens, they tell me that they can't do what they agreed with your staff but have a plan C. You look at it, its not great but you now have:-

Portacabin paid for and a p*ssed off supplier who wants it shifted or he firebombs it.
No significant work booked for a month to get yard set up.
Builder (new) booked to start extension within a month.
Gates/plant etc dumped all over inc. at customers sites who are not happy with the false-promised timescales.
Spent Â£1200 in legal costs sorting new (garden centre) place, and fielding utility company (original site) just in case.
Spent round Â£5000 in lost time yourself.

Rang property department 8 times last week, nothing sorted.
Get phine call from your contact this morning fresh back from holiday:-

Sorry, it's off, too much hassle for us.

Rant over.

No idea wtf to do now. Original place still there but I have to pay non-refundable bond of well over a grand to even enter a discussion as to whther they will alter lease - solicitor advising me I am mental to consider it - their solicitor counters - pay up or get lost.

Crazy.

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:11 pm**

dunno what to say to that

hope it all works out ok for you some how

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:33 pm**

your in the same boat as us johnny,we used to have a yard but the owner sold it for 5 Â£1mill houses
we have lock ups at the minute,Â£12 per week each
pain in the backside but what else can you do
the last yard i looked at was 80 ft by 23 ft and he wanted Â£40 grand
LLL

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:16 pm**

Spreading yourself too thin, should delegate or employ someone to deflect some of the BS.

Hp

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:33 pm**

lutonlagerlout wrote:your in the same boat as us johnny,we used to have a yard but the owner sold it for 5 Â£1mill houses
we have lock ups at the minute,Â£12 per week each
pain in the backside but what else can you do
the last yard i looked at was 80 ft by 23 ft and he wanted Â£40 grand
LLL

You surely were looking to buy it?

Couldnt possibly be Â£22 quid a foot??

Â£12 quid for a lockup is as cheap as chips, about Â£125-150 a month round here. Cannot keep the vans in them which is the aim. Always scared ****less about my gear, worked too long n hard to lose it by letting the lads leave them outside their house at nights.
The whole idea is move it away from here to gain a touch of separation instead of having lads at the house etc, and to have my office slap-bang in the middle of demographic so I'm only 5 mins away not 20 (e/way). Thought about separate office and yard as loads of offices, and can get a yard no bother but 7 miles in opposite direction to demographic so effectively a 20 mile trip e/w for my guys before they set foot on site, would take best part of an hour from yard to sites due to traffic. Never going to work.

Looked at some land today was a former nursery (horticulture) been idle for quite a while but I reckon there's no chance of using it - if there was it would be worth 15 times the price. Even considered opening a wee plants nursery and having the many tools and vehicles the nursery needs out the back

but doubt that would work - especially with 3 x garden centres within 1.5 miles.

At a loss, a complete loss.

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:37 pm**

henpecked wrote:Spreading yourself too thin, should delegate or employ someone to deflect some of the BS.

Hp

Could you explain this in more detail please? I've already taken a back step from the manual part of it to deal with this stuff. I'm not convinced who I could possibly employ that could help me with these particular problems - they are, after all, the responsibility of the proprietor, no ?

Or what have I missed - am willing to listen to any suggestions.....

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:12 pm**

bit like the second garden centre, could buy a failing (or good) business (WITH LAND) the goodwill etc. wouldn't cost you much and may be saleable, to the best of my knowledge accounts tend to be in the know regarding businesses for sale.

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:40 pm**

you're right Mikey, all my contacts at suppliers/competition etc are on the lookout. Nowt

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:43 pm**

Was thinking along those lines too. Could you buy a larger plot and divide it it smaller rentable yards the income would easily cover the loan. Also what about your local enterprise /development/ investmment agency they provide funding and support for business expension if they thik it's a runner. I rent a yard off someone who did just that he gets about Â£20000 annually from the rental of 4 acres with about 10 tenants.

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:57 pm**

like pablo saying, if your in this situation then others will be, might be time to buckle up and buy a place and rent it out,

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:09 pm**

as the lads said, you buy the land and then rent lots out. once watched this thing on the tv about property developers and then they introduced some bloke worth over 100m. he buys garages/lockups and rents them out.. ???

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:16 pm**

Hi johhny boy, my old lockup was Â£100.00 p/m, fully insulated wired with sockets and lights, proper racking, just not big enough, need a proper unit, with an open front building like giles's for pulling trucks in then a yard aswell, but no chance of that any time soon.

Were about are you from what sorta work are you in to?

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:26 pm**

forget that just saw your website in your signature

Posted: **Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:42 pm**

The land thing was an idea I had last week but as I said it's green belt. I din't know what the rules are if it was previously used as a nursery (I do recall market gardens are treated differently for tax and things so I suspect they may have a planning loophole too).

Â£100/month. Jesus, can't even get a single garage for that round our way.
I had 420m2 lined up of bare unsurfaced unfenced scrubland. Â£500/mth plus the dreaded. Have looked at units but they are Â£8/10k pa minimum plus rates, plus the huge downside that I can't create some refuse/mulch bays for my man ted-the-grab to clear once a year. Â£200/mth min spend at the tip right now, was hoping to clear that by way of the yard.

Posted: **Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:13 pm**

Well, another week of dealing with unscrupulous landlords.
Had one lined up, not ideal location and he has just gained pp for a house, so 6mths max but then switch to his new yard "literally around the corner". Wanted effectively Â£4/sq.ft which apparently is cheap - 8 estate agents reckon ceiling for open storage is Â£1.50/ft. Oh, and since when is 4 miles away on the most overloaded road in the area "around the corner"???

Have found a warehouse on a farm, 1200 sq ft at Â£7.50/ft, to expensive but nice community down there. He'll let me build a bay in the carpark for rubbish so all ok there, its just too expensive plus there's rates.

On the upside I can possibly partition it and he could rent the back temporarily saving me money if i can make the space work, there is parking on site, and there is a lovely yard with offices which I'd get first refusal on.

Hmmmmm, need to make another Â£3k pa min.

The Brew Cabin

Aaaaaaarrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh