Business Rates Reduction: Ethical Help For Landlords
If you are wondering how to avoid business rates on empty property, we can help. The team at ASTOP offer commercial organisations the chance to save on empty rates while supporting recognised and reputable good causes. We help you partner with the deserving through rent-free, legally binding rolling tenancy/licence agreements. Any savings to the property business rates are shared between you, us and the good cause. Everyone wins.
The benefits of a property partnership with us include lower maintenance requirements on your empty property and important contributions to your Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. The positive image of a busy, occupied property has been proven to speed up reletting too.
ASTOP’s service presents a low-risk, legal and proven way to combine the twin needs of charities, non-profit organisations and commercial landlords. We work with the latter to legitimately reduce their business rates on empty and unused assets. Currently, tax deductions for donating office space to a nonprofit typically sit at 50% of business rates. Charities can benefit from an 80% reduction too.
Other Benefits to Landlords and Agents
Charities looking for premises search for all types of space including offices, retail spaces and meeting rooms. We match them with landlords or their agents and help them operate rent-free with business rates covered in easy-to-terminate tenancy or licence agreements.
In addition to financial rewards, landlords productively using empty space can lead to CSR and public relations successes. Indeed, many of our clients are celebrated for making positive community contributions by making an empty property available to the nonprofit sector. This is in stark contrast to the negative PR around decline, crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with empty, unused commercial property.
Flexible Leasing Arrangements
As they are actively used by responsible tenants, occupied offices and retail spaces are proven to be quicker to re-let than empty properties. We ensure that any lease agreements are short-term and support immediate vacation should it be required. This is made explicit in any arrangement and charities often leave a property once it has been let commercially with just one month’s notice.
Should a charity gain more funding or become more established, as often happens, more long-term arrangements are often welcomed by both parties. Many short-term lets we have arranged have turned into longer-term partnerships as good causes create headquarters or service centres in previously empty properties. This is something we are always delighted to facilitate should it occur. As always, our intention is to create win-win scenarios for landlords and not-for-profit organisations.
The reason we have been successful over many years is our ability to genuinely match the expectations of good causes with landlords and their agents. Everyone benefits.
