Alan Ramsay

Anyone any experience of starting/running a car club?

I have been renting an old warehouse for several years where I keep “project” cars and rent “spaces” out to other people (who I trust) who are interested in working on cars (unit holds about 14 cars at a squeeze)
It’s not run as a business at all, everyone just uses the place to work on their own stuff, in fact I have hardly been there in the last few months for various reasons.

I pay the rent on the place, which I don’t mind and we divide it up amongst ourselves – the problem is the rates – the Council wanted to charge £1900 a year for the place as they class it as a workshop, and therefore business use (hence business rates)

I have managed to get a reduction on this but they did say that if you set the place up as a proper car club, you get an 80% reduction. You need to provide a copy of minutes of meeting and draw up a “Constitution”

Anyone done something like this before? Or any other ideas to get the rates down to a decent level?

Leslie

Hold an AGM with a sensible agenda, elect officers to the club, think of a name for the club, write down the minutes, and submit them to the Council for their information.

Les