Complicated Tier I E route - already invested! Help Please!

[Parthaab]

I am on PBS, and recently invested 200k ( through my limited company ) in a property ( not residential ), to develop it as a business.
My idea is to apply for Tier I E for my 20 year son in India, on the basis that this investment was on HIS behalf, by changing share holding of company to him.
Can seniors advice me if HO will accept this, and if so, what documents will they require?

[BlackBirdSSG]

Have you invested this money on a "development" of a commercial property? Or have you just bought this property?

[Parthaab]

BlackBird, I have bought an old commercial place, and am refurbishing it to run as a small commercial venture.

[BlackBirdSSG]

Yes. It is acceptable ... AS LONG AS

1) You operate your business from elsewhere
2) You declare it as commercial property and do not use it for residential purposes (or even use part of it)
If you do reside in it and operate your business from same property too, it will not be considered part of investment.

Please bear in mind that you CAN do property or real estate business. But you cannot use that as your business premise and then include it as investment.

Premise bought for your business is NOT considered investment. Premise bought and refurbished to be sold later to other businesses is considered investment.

For further clarification, go to Point # 68 (on Page 14) of Tier 1 Entrepreneur Policy Guidance

Code: Select all

68. If you have bought property for your business which includes residential accommodation, we 
will not accept the value of this part of the property as investment in the business. The value 
of this part of the property should be deducted from the amount of your investment. You must 
provide an estimate of the value of this living accommodation from a surveyor who is a member 
of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). This valuation must be produced 
and dated within the three months prior to the date of application. For more information on 
membership of RICS please see www.rics.org.

Source : https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _04-14.pdf

[Parthaab]

Thank you, Blackbird!

The second part of my question is: can I claim ( by changing company ownership ), that this investment was on behalf of a third person, who has never been to the UK?

[Olasunkanmi]

You cannot buy a property for the purpose of refurbishment and management and then use to claim investment points. The only type of property that can be used to claim investment are the property that are solely bought for the purpose of running your business. For example, if you buy a complete building and then use it solely as your business premises with local council permission, then such property is classed as investment in your business as long as you don't use part of the building for residential purpose.

The other form of property that could be used for business purpose are those bought with the intention of rebuilding/reconstruction as this will meet the requirement that only property construction is allowed and not property refurbishment/letting or management.


In order word Property bought as business premises is classed as investment, whereas property bought and refurbished to be sold later is not consider investment as its not allowed under the Tier 1 entrepreneur visa.