BizSpace, Nottingham Arnold -

Sam Babalola 6 years ago

We are a community based charity which arrived at Bizspace in nottingham over 4 years ago paying close to a £1000 for our unit. We received the unit in a very horrible state, with no health and safety standards, with most of the rooms filled with rubbish to the roof. The walls had holes and were falling apart, the floor was damp and cold. There were hardly any doors and the ceiling was an absolute disgrace, may I add with no lighting. The toilets and kitchen were in total disrepair. We took the building with the understanding that it would take us months/years to get it up to standard while running the charity and paying our rent. This took us a couple of years to get the units to a reasonable standard. However every effort to do this was not appreciated, as the manager was quick to re-evaluate the current market value of the unit, and as a result would remind us on numerous occasions of the present value of the unit suggesting it was worth more and disregarding the charity's investment running into tens of thousands of pounds to bring it up to that standard. Despite the fact we were not owning bizspace any amount of money to date, the company shut down our charity, and our assets were confiscated by the manager Jamie Douglas, though we spent money upgrading the unit. The manager of the unit Jamie Douglas lied to us on numerous occasions, and mistreated us, for example he suggested we would be allowed back into the unit if we paid the final months’ rent though locking it up 3 days earlier than the next month and 10 days at the start of the month. Jamie accesses the unit at will and took 100's of photographs of our assets which are now confiscated by bizspace today which has cost the charity in over 4 years of labour and left the charity with a deficit on its account. We agreed to pay the final month rent on the understanding he would open the doors for us to collect our assets, however he instead wrote us a letter a week after saying we should never contact him directly, or come to the premises otherwise he would order the police to arrest us, I was simply devastated that a company of this magnitude would treat its client/charity in this manner. The charity before being shut down had fully networked with our close community and we had various projects inc a café, a community empowerment project (for youths in the community), a Christian worship centre and workshop and training offices and made a lot of impact in the community which has improved its reputation. We made a deposit at inception of £500 which we never received back. Jamie also threatened despite the fact our deposit was not refunded and compensation was not made though we invested in making the property a hundred times better than its original state, that, if found anywhere near the property the police would be called to remove us. Additionally we tried contacting the head office and some regional bizspace offices to intervene, however we were ignored. I am posting this so the public is aware of ours and many others experience with bizspace.