Legal Side of Running a Business from Home

jet77

Hi,

In the deeds of my house it says that I'm unable to run a business from home (as it does in most residential deeds). I've looked in to it and to get a solicitor to do a deed covenant release will cost around the thousand pound mark!!

Has anyone got any ways round this? If I get a PO Box address I will still be working from home but would it be better? I will be working from clients homes doing consultations but obviously the business needs one central address.

I know that the best way of advertising my services would be sign writing my van but my neighbours and I dont get on and I amd 99.9% sure that they would contact the council if they thought I was running a business from home.

Any ideas would be gratefully received as I'm in the last stages of setting up (due to officially go SE on 19th July) and this is a HUGE hiccup!!

Thanks

J

martindow

Have a search on the House Buying, Renting and Selling board. Questions about covenants often crop up there.

It seems in many cases there is no-one who is able to or wanting to enforce them.

Premier_2

As long as you don't have anyone coming to your home in relation to your business you should be fine. By anyone, I include customers, other employees and delivery drivers - this is the type of thing planners were looking to avoid.

Regarding the van, are you allowed to park a commercial vehicle on your land? We have a covenant to prevent this - something quite common (along with boats, caravans, etc) on newer housing developments.

If you are not, you'll need to find somewhere else to leave your van.

If you are permitted, what about using removable (magnetic ?) signs on the vehicle to keep the neighbours happy?

paulwf

The clause is probably there to stop you turning your house into a shop or running the type of business where clients and deliveries are arriving all the time. If you are just using a laptop at home then that is completely different and no one is going to care.

If you are just using a desk at home as long as you are registered with HMRC you should be fine. However if clients are regularly visiting your house then this may have implications on your mortgage, home insurance and council tax.

Some thoughts if you are still having issues:

- a serviced office won't cost much and could solve your problems and give you a clutter free place to work from

- you could set up as a Ltd with a different registered office address, although please take advice from an accountant before going down the Ltd route

- could you use magnetic signs on the van to appease the neighbours?

I'm in no way a legal expert so please take professional advice. My only concern would be that if you are just using a laptop at home and you start phoning up your home insurance and council tax department you might be opening a can of worms over nothing if you see what I mean.

jet77

Hi,

Thank you for your advice - very much appreciated. I went back to the solicitor who dealt with my house purchase and he said that merely doing the paperwork for the business at my address would not be a breach of covenant. He also doesn't believe that there was a covenant regarding the parking of a commercial vehicle on the drive, however he is going to double check in the terms of transfer and get back to me on that one. I've had a look through all the paperwork I received at the time of purchase and can't see anything regarding it - so fingers crossed. I also checked with the planning office just to cover all bases and have got the all clear from them too :j

whitewing

Magnetic signs can come off if you go fast (but still within national speed limits). Probably okay for trundling round town.

jet77

Thanks for that - I was planning on using them but I'll get quotes for sign writing it and see how they compare.

martindow

jet77 wrote: »

Hi,

Thank you for your advice - very much appreciated. I went back to the solicitor who dealt with my house purchase and he said that merely doing the paperwork for the business at my address would not be a breach of covenant. He also doesn't believe that there was a covenant regarding the parking of a commercial vehicle on the drive, however he is going to double check in the terms of transfer and get back to me on that one. I've had a look through all the paperwork I received at the time of purchase and can't see anything regarding it - so fingers crossed. I also checked with the planning permission just to cover all bases and have got the all clear from them too :j

New builds often have covenants from the builders who want to stop people doing all sorts of things while they are selling other houses on the development. Once they have sold the houses they couldn't care less. The person who introduced the covenant, the builder in this case, is the only one who can enforce the covenant.

With older houses covenants made by people who have long since died or moved away are never likely to be enforced.

According to some posts on the MSE houses board case law means that a covenant can only be enforced if the person able to enforce is directly affected so unless they are a neighbour the covenant is effectively meaningless.

Savvy_Sue

Have you also told your mortgage lender and your insurer? Just doing the paperwork shouldn't be a problem, but still advisable, especially insurance if you've bought new computer equipment or a printer for the business.

blue_monkey_2

Someone reported me for running a business from my (rented) property and the planners came around. I use 1 room in the house for stock and the lounge as my office (it is my office, LOL). I also have an 18 x 8 unti at the bottom of the garden for stock. People place orders on my website and I pack and I send parcels out. The planners told me that I was free to get on with this and they were more concerned with people, say, turning their garage into a beauty salon or a shop.

Does anyone else in your street have a van on their drive that isgn written. The people over the road have turned part of their house into an aerobics studio and there are people coming and going all day so I am sure I could get away with customers coming and going too.

vivatifosi

martindow wrote: »

New builds often have covenants from the builders who want to stop people doing all sorts of things while they are selling other houses on the development. Once they have sold the houses they couldn't care less. The person who introduced the covenant, the builder in this case, is the only one who can enforce the covenant.

Yes and no. It depends on how the covenants are written. I am a director of a resident's management company that was set up by the developer and written in as part of the covenants. Because the company was set up by the developer, the covenants are to the management company not the developer and are enforceable. We've had a solicitor challenge us, we've pointed to the term in the covenants (which they didn't have a copy of from the house holder) and they went away and got the householder to cease the breach.

However I would also say in terms of running a business, on our estate the covenants do define the types of business you can and cannot run, so some types of business are ok. Ours does not allow any commercial vehicle though, with or without signwritten or magnetic signs. The best thing the OP can do is actually trawl through the covenants and see what they say. FWIW covenants can be a PITA for the management companies too - we have no latitude to change without the agreement of all of the residents which we'd never get.

If your estate is still run by the developers, you could write to them and ask for permission. They may say they no longer have an interest in the estate and you can do what you want as far as they are concerned. I've heard of that happening too!