- The building I operated the business from had a retail shop front >
The building I operated the business from had a retail shop front, and it also had offices above it. Once I got it all started and got going, everyone was coming up to me and saying, “Can I rent an office from you?” I used to say “Yes of course, come on in.” Hadn’t a clue what I was doing, didn’t know anything about leasing, didn’t know anything about the landlord and tenant act; all I knew was that these businesses needed some space.
So that’s what I did, and I would get £100 a week there, £200 a week here, and it all worked really well. Everybody was happy; we’d built up a little community. It was absolutely fantastic, until one day I got called to the landlord.
I was thinking, oh my god I’m going to get in so much trouble because I’m sure I’ve done something wrong. I’ve sub-let to these people and I’m probably not supposed to. But I didn’t use agents then and I tried to keep legal advice to a minimum, it was all very casual.
My fears subsided when there was no mention of the subletting; they just asked if I’d like to buy the property as they’d been approached by the guy next door.
I said, “Well, yeah. How much do you want for it?” They came back with, “£75,000.”
I didn’t even try to negotiate the price, I went back to the friendly bank manager, and I managed to buy it for £75,000, not sure how I did it! I sold it two weeks later for £250,000.
Lynn GateThe Storage Company Limited
