Running a retail shop from garage AIBU to complain

[LikeothersIamjustme]

Neighbour on road has just set up a shop from their garage selling house decor, furniture etc. There is a sandwich board advertising on the footpath. Advertising on FB as retail, come and visit etc. There is no parking for visitors other than the road/footpath. No PP for change of use. Open 7 days a week. I think they should have permission and pay businesss rates. Thoughts please!!

@StealthNinjaMum

Normally I'd say report it but as businesses are suffering at the moment I'd probably wait six months, give them a chance to get back on their feet as I assume they're struggling.

Unlike all the other businesses who are suffering but still doing the right thing and operating legally?

Report it

vanillaandhoney normally I'm a stickler for rules but if it was safe and observing rules of social distancing then on this one occasion I would overlook it.

They would need to register for business rates but they probably wouldn't have to pay them as they would be eligible for small business relief.

They don't necessarily need planning permission:

www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/56/working_from_home

It sounds like they probably do from your description but it is possible that the council have given them a Certificate of Lawful Use instead. The sign is temporary (it is moveable) and if they only have very low footfall, a few customers a day, the council might have felt it wasn't disruptive.

I think people are trying their luck at the moment as councils are struggling. Our neighbour has built a hair and beauty salon in their garden, from scratch (it's massive but single storey). Another neighbour asked the council what's going on. They've confirmed they know it exists but don't have the resources to intervene. So now I live next door to a hair salon. It's lowered our house value significantly, so that's another thing to consider as well as customer parking, insurance and disturbance. I'm fuming.

Are other people around .complaining about the Garage sellers,or are you the only reporter.

@1forAll74

Are other people around .complaining about the Garage sellers,or are you the only reporter.

Don't know. The shop only seemed to appear 'ready for business' this weekend but it is clear this is planned as an ongoing retail operation....

Quite a few businesses have had financial support and a reduction in business rates. Town and borough councils (who have given quite a bit of financial support for small businesses) have had their coffers hit hardest by this (our town is down 5 million+)
and people now avoiding taxes and regular business payments will continue to help cripple the economy (meaning that support for places like locally run food banks suffer). Report.

You don’t always need planning. I used to run a business from home premises and I didn’t- check your council website.

We had this very issue, nearby neighbours started a hairdressers in their outbuilding. We reported to building control/planning and they received a notice telling them to cease from the activity and that a change of use and building regs were needed. Strangely enough they stopped after that but the many locals who asked them to sort out parking (on the main road on a right angled bend) and two car accidents on the road caused by people having to manoeuvre around customers parked didn’t seem to register.

@orangenasturtium

They would need to register for business rates but they probably wouldn't have to pay them as they would be eligible for small business relief.

They don't necessarily need planning permission:

www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/56/working_from_home

It sounds like they probably do from your description but it is possible that the council have given them a Certificate of Lawful Use instead. The sign is temporary (it is moveable) and if they only have very low footfall, a few customers a day, the council might have felt it wasn't disruptive.

Very unlikely for a retail business. With advertising on FB and signs on the pavement, they're clearly trying to drum up more business.

Thanks. Planning said put in writing so will see what happens.

@Emeraldshamrock

They probably have permission.

OP would know, due to the fact that OP would have had to be consulted, the change of use would have had to be publicised, and she can check relatively easily online.

@StealthNinjaMum

vanillaandhoney normally I'm a stickler for rules but if it was safe and observing rules of social distancing then on this one occasion I would overlook it.

Thousands of shops have closed because they can't afford to stay open through the pandemic - what they haven't done is set up illegally out of someone's garage!

Why on earth is it okay for this business to operate illegally? Because of COVID? What if you lived next door to them and their business caught fire and it damaged your home? And their insurance didn't pay out because they were operating illegally?

I bet you wouldn't be so keen to overlook it then.

Report it to the council. If it takes off you'll have parking issues and noise, and vans turning up early to unload stock. There's a reason most shops aren't run out of the retailers garages. It would be anti social.

I agree with pp's to report, many businesses are struggling this illegal set up won't help the legitimate businesses.

When I started running a business from home (freelance designer/typesetter) the local council told me that as long as I didn't stand out as obviously running a business then I didn't need planning permission. What they would have shut me down for was generating commercial waste, generating traffic (foot and vehicular) regularly greater than normal for that area, and on-street (in my case on-country lane) visitor parking. I think you should at least consult the council for their advice, it sounds like your neighbour is completely in the wrong. I do have enormous sympathy for people struggling to make a living in the present conditions, but what you describe sounds as if the council might well put a stop to it.

@serenoa

When I started running a business from home (freelance designer/typesetter) the local council told me that as long as I didn't stand out as obviously running a business then I didn't need planning permission. What they would have shut me down for was generating commercial waste, generating traffic (foot and vehicular) regularly greater than normal for that area, and on-street (in my case on-country lane) visitor parking. I think you should at least consult the council for their advice, it sounds like your neighbour is completely in the wrong. I do have enormous sympathy for people struggling to make a living in the present conditions, but what you describe sounds as if the council might well put a stop to it.

Thanks They had previously advertised the odd thing for sale and seemed to be reupholstering furniture etc and had clients coming and going, but to set up a shop is IMO taking it a step too far. And it is a shop, not a store room, and the adverts say 'come and take a look'. Also TBH the building is a deathtrap

Just let them know, that when they sell their house they will have to pay capital gains on it. Should make them think!

I’m sure it won’t last long, very cheeky of them.

They know the rules if they’ve previously had a legit premises.

I’m not in the UK but how many threads in MN are complaining about lack of funding in government services- the NHS for example. And threads from posters with disabilities who have had their funding reduced. Yet it’s ok for people to dodge tax, don’t be a grass? Odd attitude.

I’d have reported it too.

I would be ringing the council and asking for advice.
An old neighbour of ours was running a flooring company and stored the stuff in his garage. Lorries dropped it off and vans picked it up.
He knew he was getting a visit as neighbour had complained, so he reduced his stock and squeezed it into one quarter of his double garage.
The council ok’d it, then he filled his garage up again !

Sod Covid, report it.
Over lockdown, our neighbour decided to start selling cars from our shared drive. There would be up to ten cars parked outside our house, including on our half of the drive, blocking the road, mechanic noises every night up to midnight right outside bedroom window, cars being scrapped daily, buyers turning up at 8am on the weekend with their families, blocking us in. Cars coming and going at all hours. We put up with it for months, oil and diesel being dumped in the shared drain, blocking that.
I reported them when a lorry turned up to deliver drums of oil and red diesel (selling that illegally and it leaked into our garden). The stress of another weekend of noise, red diesel fumes and buyers traipsing on our drive was too much.
No thought for us at all. I reported it all, trading standards and our HA warned them and it was overnight the cars disappeared, the selling stopped and we had peace and could relax.
Compare that with the guy running a barbers from a trailer in the next street-not a problem, no parking issues or inconsiderate hours from him.

Of course you did the right thing in reporting it. It is not for us as individuals to judge whether a change of use is acceptable but for the Local Authority to make the decision. If (not likely from what you say) they were to decide that from a planning point of view the change of use would be OK it would ensure that business rates were paid, Health and Safety rules complied with etc. etc. because the business would be on the radar not off it. You can also be sure that if everyone turns a blind eye the next thing will be that a whole load of other people will start doing the same and use this case as a precedent.

Looks like there are plenty of chancers taking a punt and hoping they will get away with it as council use covid as an excuse to reduce services.