Terms and Conditions
You must read, understand, and accept these terms and conditions in order to rent a garage from us.
Although this text is quite long, it's all very important. If we find you have broken any of the conditions of renting one of our garages there may be a penalty, up to and including immediate eviction without appeal.
Definitions
- We (and us and our) means BigTown Council, your landlord.
- You (and your) means the tenant or tenants named on the tenancy agreement for the garage.
- Garage means the garage we are renting to you.
These terms and conditions give important information about your garage tenancy.
The tenancy
Your garage tenancy is a monthly tenancy beginning on the first of the month. If we give you possession of a garage part way through a month, the rent will be payable from the start of the following month - however, you will pay a month's rent in advance on the day you take the keys.
Rent
You will pay your rent a month in advance, due on the 1st of each month. You can pay
- By Direct Debit
- Online
- By phone
Direct Debit is the best way for you to pay - that way there's no risk of you forgetting.
The rental cost may increase every year from 1st April. The amount of the increase will be decided every year in December, and we will contact you to tell you how much that may be.
What happens if I don’t pay my garage rent?
You have until the 8th of the month to make your payment. If you don’t pay your rent by then, we will write to you by post and email, giving you 14 days to pay what you owe us.
If we still don’t receive your payment by the 22nd, we will send you a Notice to Quit and your tenancy will be ended on the 1st of the next month. We will take steps to recover possession of the garage, and any contents will be removed and taken to our secure storage facility, at a cost to yourself.
We may take you to court to get back outstanding rent and other costs. If the court gives us a court order against you, this could make it difficult for you to get credit in the future.
If we end your garage tenancy because you owe us rent, you will not be able to apply for another garage until you have paid the money you owe us.
Use of the garage
You can use your garage to store most domestic items. You can store items related to a business you run (eg gardening tools if you are a gardener), but you cannot run a business from your garage.
You can't use your garage to store anything that easily catches fire and burns, or anything that contains harmful substances.
You must
- Keep your garage locked, clean, and tidy
- Let our employees and contractors to enter it to inspect or repair it, and
- Tell us if you move home and want to keep your garage – if we cannot contact you, we will end the tenancy and dispose of anything you leave in the garage.
You must not
- Run a business from the garage
- Leave an engine or generator running inside the garage
- Attach any notices, nameplates, or adverts etc to the garage or garage block
- Store anything outside the garage, including on the roof
- Keep rubbish inside or outside the garage
- Live in the garage or let anyone else live in it
- Use the garage for any illegal or antisocial purpose
- Rent or sublet the garage to someone else, including passing the tenancy on to a friend or family member
- Make fixed additions or structural alterations, including installing an energy supply, equipment, or machinery
- Store flammable materials, liquids, or gas cylinders in the garage
- Annoy or inconvenience other garage users or local residents
- Use the garage forecourt for parking or obstruct another tenant’s use of the garage site
If you breach any of these terms we may evict you at short notice with no right of appeal. Depending on the reason for eviction, it may result in you being unable to rent another council garage for five years.
Damage and repairs
You must report any damage to us. We treat garage repairs as ‘non-urgent’ unless the condition of the garage causes a health and safety issue.
We will repair the structure and exterior of a garage. This includes the roof, walls, doors, floor, main timbers, gutters, paintwork and locks.
We will only carry out repairs to a garage if we believe it is economical to do so. If there is serious damage to a garage, we will decide whether or not to repair it. If a garage becomes uneconomical to repair, we will give you notice to quit. You will usually have 14 days to leave.
We may sometimes need to contact you so we can carry out maintenance or repairs to the garage block.
We will carry out any repairs in line with our usual waiting time for repairs. When you request a repair we will tell you when we can fix it.
If you miss a repair appointment without telling us, you will have to request the repair again.
You will have to pay to repair any damage caused by a member of your household or one of your visitors, or that is not due to fair wear and tear.
You will be responsible for any fittings in the garage, for example, shelving or any additional locks that you fit.
You will be responsible for the cost of having to replace any keys or locks due to damage or loss.
Insurance
You are responsible for insuring the contents of your garage.
We don’t guarantee that our garages are 100% wind and weathertight. You should take out adequate insurance to cover anything you bring into or store in the garage.
We are not responsible for stolen or damaged items.
All contents and vehicles are stored in the garage at your own risk. We will not be responsible for any damage to contents, fixtures or fittings.
Ending the tenancy
The tenancy is a monthly tenancy and we or you can end it at any time by giving us at least one month's notice in writing. Any notice runs from the Monday after we receive it. The tenancy will end at the end of the following month, and you can then return the keys. You must pay the rent (and any other charges) until we receive the keys.
We are not responsible for keys that are lost in the post. You should use recorded delivery if you post the keys back to us.
The garage must be empty and clean when you return the keys. We may charge you for any work we have to do before we can let the garage out again.
If we want to end the tenancy, we can serve a notice to quit:
- by post
- by email
- by hand delivering it to the last address we have for you.
If a joint tenant dies and the other tenant wants to continue to rent the garage, they will have to write to us and include a copy of the death certificate.
Disposing of personal property left in the garage
We do not accept responsibility for any property you leave behind when the tenancy ends. We may charge you for disposing of anything you leave in the garage.
Under Section 41 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, if we consider that the tenancy has come to an end (for example, if we evict you or you abandon the garage), we may serve an appropriate notice on you giving you the opportunity to collect your belongings. Once the notice has ended, we can dispose of any items that remain in the garage.
Our duties
We will make sure you can occupy the garage without interruption or interference from us for the whole of your tenancy.
We will do this as long as you do not break any of the conditions of the tenancy.
We will carry out an inspection of the garage every year to check the condition of the garage and then schedule any necessary repairs. We will give you at least 14 days notice of our annual inspection.