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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2013 12:14:25 GMT
Has anyone ever used storage for personal possessions whilst selling / buying a house, renting out a house or whilst full timing in a motorhome or on an extended trip?
I'm looking at various options with regards to my house (mortgaged) if I decide to full time in the van, or at least spending 6 months or so each year in the van.
My house is a first time buyers house "mid renovation" and because of the average earnings being much lower round here than the national average, and because first time buyers now have to have a much larger deposit to secure a mortgage, I suspect, due to the length of time that other houses along my street have remained unsold for a very long time, perhaps a year +.
However, I may consider renting or taking in lodger if I can get the house into a state where someone might want to live in it eg proper heating, redecoration etc.
The other option that I've just discovered by researching self-storage online, is that it may be possible for me to rent my house out as a storage facility for other people - ie both bedrooms could be used as lockable storage for other people. So has anyone any experience of this kind of storage arrangement?
Getting online quotes for storage is tricky as most websites seem to direct the customer towards phoning up for a quote, but I have been able to get one online quote for 3 -6 months for 50cu metres (ie transit van size) at approx £10 week for 8 weeks, and thereafter approx £20 weekly, and I wondered how this compared to other firms but haven't been able to get an online quote from any other website.
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Post by Pollik on Jan 27, 2013 12:52:43 GMT
Seems quite fair. Last time we were in storage, we paid about £100 pm to store a house load of junk
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Post by kangooroo on Jan 27, 2013 13:13:51 GMT
I'm not sure that renting out your house as a storage facility would be the best idea but putting your gear into storage and letting it to tenants could be. Here your house would attract about £500 per month without central heating or about £600 with. Taking a lodger could be another option while retaining the option to return home every now and then and could buy you time in the short term for a year or so to see how things work out with full-timing, or near full-timing in your van.
Here the cost of storage is £80 per month for a standard container or £50 for a half-container, no VAT and 24 hour access with CCTV security. Several farms offer storage units as a new form of diversification.
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Post by donkeytoo on Jan 27, 2013 14:29:08 GMT
Personally to store my own stuff i went for the local housing association lock up garages. i have three now. which cost me £60 a month . One of them we have our spitfire in so have built a second floor just above the level of the car and use that for storage. loads of room roughly 2800 cubic feet each one. By the way you don't have to be a housing association tenant to hire these.
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Post by bigboack on Jan 27, 2013 17:41:35 GMT
When we built our extension we hired a 20 foot steel container for £1.00/ day worked out very well for us, they charge delivery and collection, we had ours on our front garden for 3 months, neighbours were a bit peed off but hey ho, We have rented our house out now and live full time in the Lodge, The rent from the house pays for the site fees on the lodge + a bit more.
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Post by daiboy on Jan 27, 2013 18:03:02 GMT
Hi all. In my long term planning form my retirement, I split my 3 bed house into 2 separate flats.
The bathroom was already downstairs, the front and back rooms had been knocked through before I bought the house, so I separated them off again with a stud partition wall ( not in the same place as the original though I made the bedroom smaller).
The back bedroom was split into a small shower room and a galley kitchen, bedroom 2 stayed the same and the front bedroom became a large living room. I put a fire door at the bottom of the stairs and hey presto 2 dwellings.
I was not in a position to live in the house myself at the time but as long as an immediate family member lived in one of the dwellings no planning permission was needed as I was simply renting part of my home (as I would to a lodger). My niece moved in for a very low rent and I let the bottom flat at the going rent.
The heating and electric remained as a single system so the rent included heating and electric CONTRIBUTION. This ensured that they did not take the mick with the utilities as the contribution would be varied if a large bill came in. If I want to sell the house at a later date it is still I property and easy to return to a family home, 3 beds, 1 en-suite
If you live in one of the flats yourself and do make a profit this is taken care of under" the rent a room scheme" you have full tax relief on the 1st £4,800 you earn so no problem there.
I now live in the property upstairs myself, I've done a loft conversion and put in a veranda garden and fire escape so that I have access to the garden and the garage directly from the flat. I'm lucky that the tenant downstairs has been there for a few years now and is well settled. There is constant movement in and out, lights on and off so even when I'm away in my Motorhome there is usually someone in residence.
I was able to do all the work myself but as long as you have 2 loos and 2 lots of cooking facilities or a "lodger" you can get on with it seems the best way.
When I go full time next autumn I can lock up my flat but still have an address I can use and someone still in the house for insurance/ security etc. and still not have to put my stuff in storage.
Dai
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Post by kangooroo on Jan 27, 2013 18:39:11 GMT
Dai - I'm involved with a friend who's currently in the process of doing a similar conversion of a 3-bed house into two flats.
There were two options - either a full conversion with separate access and utilities or sharing the kitchen and/or bathroom to qualify under the rent-a-room scheme. It wasn't permissible to effectively create two individual self-contained flats behind the shared front door even when utilities were shared. This was confirmed by three different planning officers in different areas who also advised that planning permission would be required...!!
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Post by Firefox on Jan 27, 2013 19:52:36 GMT
50 cubic metres would be bigger than a transit van which would be 4x2x2 = 16 cubic metres. So 50cu m would be about 3 transit van sizes - you may get more than you think Perhaps another option is to store possessions in the loft, locked up at the hatch. That's how it has worked for a couple of houses I rented when I was younger. Then let the rooms out as furnished.
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Post by TammiJ on Jan 27, 2013 21:36:05 GMT
It must be better to let the whole house out rather than let rooms for storage (I mean financially speaking). I suppose it would depend on if there was a market to let rooms though, but if the house isn't heated it may be a problem. I guess you could get maybe £200 a month for storage or £500+ for accommodation if it was lettable
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