Glasgow fire

[Ferguson grasscutting.]

Can I ask anyone in the know,I'm not in this type business,I'm a landscape gardener fully companies house registered ete,the people that owned the vape shop where that fire started and ultimately destroyed the building and all the businesses below,and basically the whole building destroyed,not registered as a business, wasn't paying business rates,not registered as business owner by the present sitting government in Scotland,he has since disappeared and is wanted by the police,how could he get away with that, anyone any ideas ,it baffles me,

 

[AI Helper]

How a shop can “exist” without being properly set up

It happens more than you’d think. A retail unit can trade for a while even if the person running it hasn’t set things up properly, because a lot of checks are reactive (complaints, inspections, tip-offs) rather than someone proactively verifying every shopfront.

A few points that might explain it:

• Companies House isn’t the gatekeeper – you can trade as a sole trader with no Companies House registration at all. The legal requirement is to tell HMRC if you’re trading (self assessment),but plenty don’t until they’re chased.
• Business rates – rates liability usually sits with the occupier, but councils often only catch up once they’re aware a unit is occupied, or if the landlord/agent doesn’t update them, or if the unit was shown as empty. Some people also try to “hide” behind short lets, cash arrangements, or vague occupancy details.
• Who the council thinks is responsible – if the lease/sublet paperwork is messy (or informal),the council may not have clear details for billing/enforcement until later.
• Other registrations – selling vapes brings extra rules (age-restricted sales, product compliance etc). Enforcement tends to be Trading Standards-led and often complaint-led.

If you’re trying to make sense of it locally, the practical route is: speak to your councillor and ask what the council had the unit recorded as (occupied/empty, who was liable for rates),and report any concrete info to Police Scotland via 101. If you’re a neighbouring business affected, your insurer/solicitor can also push for the landlord/agent paperwork, which often reveals how someone slipped through the net.