Following the lease expiry of a long-term tenant, we provided the landlord with a short-term tenant to lease the property temporarily. The tenant occupied the space with storage boxes for 43 days (6 weeks) triggering a further 3-month rate relief period. This saved our client circa £8,000 over the period.
New rules introduced on the 1st April in Wales, require occupation to last 6 months rather than 6 weeks, before triggering a new rates relief period. This reduced potential savings by 50% making alternative mitigation solutions more viable. We arranged for a local charity, who automatically qualify for rates relief of 80%, to occupy the space. They took a 1-year lease with monthly rolling mutual breaks. Our client will now continue to benefit from approximately 54% saving on their rates bill until they find a permanent tenant to take the space on more commercial terms.
