Reduce Business Rates by Keeping Your Property in Use
Business rates can quickly add up when a building sits empty. At Ad Hoc, we help you minimise or remove business rates through temporary occupation that keeps your building active and compliant.
What is Business Rates Mitigation?
Business rates mitigation is a strategy to help property owners reduce business rates on vacant properties through temporary, managed occupancy. This approach keeps properties secure, active and legally compliant, easing the financial burden of business rates during vacancy.
In the UK, business rates are a tax on non-domestic properties. Mitigation strategies provide an effective way for owners to manage costs while their properties are vacant.
The Hidden Costs of Vacancy
Leaving a property empty comes with a range of often underestimated expenses. Over time, these can add up significantly and impact your bottom line, especially if the vacancy stretches beyond a few months.
Typical costs for vacant properties include:
- Council tax or business rates (and premiums after extended vacancy)
- Utility standing charges and meter maintenance
- Higher insurance premiums for unoccupied buildings
- Security services to deter trespassing and vandalism
- Reactive and ongoing maintenance to prevent deterioration
- Mortgage payments or lost rental income
How Guardianship Helps
Guardianship offers a practical, low-effort way to reduce the costs of vacancy, especially business rates, while keeping your property secure, active, and well looked after.
Through temporary licence to occupy agreements, we place trusted individuals or businesses in your building, creating legitimate short-term use that may qualify for rates relief.
With Ad Hoc’s Property Guardian solution, you will benefit from:
- Reduced or eliminated business rates
- Legal, flexible occupation without tenancy
- Shared utility costs
- Regular oversight to catch issues early
- No long-term commitment or high security spend
- A proven, fully compliant approach that maximises savings and reduces risk
It’s a smart way to cut costs, stay compliant and keep your property in good hands.
Different Solutions, Various Effects
Business rates can place a heavy financial burden on vacant properties. However, our different solutions offer distinct ways to reduce or eliminate these costs. We can advise on our most effective solution based on your property and wishes.
Property Guardianship
Residential Guardianship can help reduce or even eliminate business rates.
By placing carefully vetted property guardians into otherwise vacant buildings, we provide safe and responsible occupation that protects your asset while potentially reducing liability for business rates, in some cases switching the property to council tax.
We take care of the entire process from compliance and guardian management, whilst supporting applications to secure the correct reliefs are applied for, giving you peace of mind that your property is secure, active, and cost-efficient.
If you’re looking to cut business rates while safeguarding your vacant space, our residential guardian model offers a practical and socially responsible solution.
Workspace Occupation
Workspace Guardianship can unlock significant business rate savings.
By introducing creative professionals, start-ups, and small businesses into vacant commercial spaces, we transform empty properties into vibrant, productive hubs. This not only drives down your empty business rate liability but also ensures the building is actively maintained and secure.
We manage the entire arrangement from licensing and compliance to supporting and application to secure the appropriate rate relief so you can reduce costs while contributing to local enterprise and innovation.
If you want your vacant workspace to generate value instead of expense, our workspace guardian model offers a cost-efficient and community-positive solution.
Charity Occupation
Charity Occupation can offer business rate savings of 80–100%.
We partner with carefully selected registered charities that make positive use of vacant properties, creating real social impact within local communities. Charities we work with qualify for 80% – 100% business rate relief, and we handle every aspect of the process to ensure the relief is secured.
If you’re looking to create meaningful social value from your vacant space, support the community around you, whilst also generating revenue, we can help you.
