Clause in Tenancy Agreement about "private dwelling-house only" vs work from home

olly300

yes

RetroBob wrote: »

This was cleared up for me when I recently renewed my contents insurance because I can work remotely (ie. from home) - computer and paperwork, admin etc. like you are doing is fine. They don't want it doubling up as a shop, warehouse, workshop, etc. etc.

I've read contents insurance small print and quite a few have made it specifically clear that if you have a business and only do paperwork and computer work from home like the OP, the equipment you use is not covered even if it's has mixed use.

The policy I have got covers me for doing this type of work at home but doesn't not allow me to have any visitors.

The problem the OP has is that they are allowing another director to come over for meetings.

Landlords in my experience don't have a problem if you do paperwork and computer work at home whether it's your own business or you are employed by someone else, but do like insurance companies have a problem if you have visitors coming to you home for the sole purpose of the business.

Therefore I suggest the OP:
1. Tells the landlord they are doing paperwork and computer work for a business at home.
2. Makes sure all their meetings with the other director are done somewhere like a coffee shop - you will be surprised how many meetings are done in coffee shops due to this reason.

silvercar

There may be legal implications. Is the registered address of the business the property address? Is the landlord happy for a property he owns to be the registered address of a business? Are there any comebacks on the landlord if your busness failed and it was registered at an address he owns? Could it effect the landlords credit record?

dalore

It's not the business registered address at companies house, for that it's the accountants address.

It is the VAT registered office, and the main address for all correspondence.

There would be no comebacks on the landlord if it failed, no affecting his credit record.

Getting business liability insurance and what not is all on the cards. The only employess are directors.

With the other directors (4 in total including me), coming over regularly, hows that any different if they just stopped over as mates for a cup of coffee? Since they were mates before this company started and they stopped by for coffee before, what has changed?

We have done the coffee shop meeting before but it can be noisy, cramped, expensive and they always don't have the equipment you need or the internet bandwith required. We don't want to pay for an office/meeting room since we want to keep costs down and we already have some room in the form of a spare room already we can(are) using.

I think I might just mention to the landlord that I do work from home and ask for written permission from him confirming he is ok with that.

Thanks for all the responses.

poppysarah

dalore wrote: »

With the other directors (4 in total including me), coming over regularly, hows that any different if they just stopped over as mates for a cup of coffee? Since they were mates before this company started and they stopped by for coffee before, what has changed?

Because that's potentially 3 cars every week - for business purposes rather than social.

And have you told you house insurance you have 3 directors visit regularly?

If one of the directors had an accident in your house and this damaged the company's ability to make money do you thinkthey would sue you?

Robert_Sterling_3

dalore wrote: »

With the other directors (4 in total including me), coming over regularly, hows that any different if they just stopped over as mates for a cup of coffee? Since they were mates before this company started and they stopped by for coffee before, what has changed?

Not a lot.

planning_officer

Like poppysarah says, it's three people attending the premises for business purposes, which I think could well require planning permission for a change of use. Where do these people park - have you got sufficient parking for them within your curtilage? I also picked up on something else you said - you say you use a room as an office, but you have just mentioned another 'spare room', used for meetings - does that mean 2 rooms are being used? That adds weight to the fact that this may well be a change of use.

These are the only issues really - if it was just you working at home, using one room together with the pc and phone, that's not a material change of use, but Councils are very wary once the business element starts involving people visiting.