Running food business in a rented property?

helen88_2

Firstly, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this question. Secondly, I've had a search through the site and can't seem to find an answer. I'm currently living in a rented student house and want to start up a small food catering business using the kitchen and am not sure whether I have to ask permission from the landlord first? Thanks in advance for any help!

Savvy_Sue

Welcome to the boards!

I would say yes: apart from anything else you are going to need an inspection from the local environmental health dept, and if there's anything 'wrong' they'll want the landlord to put it right!

But there may be a clause in your tenancy agreement about it - there normally is in a 'standard' tenancy, I suppose the landlord may have assumed that students wouldn't be running businesses.

And then there's my personal reaction, as a mother of students - you think a student kitchen will be fit to run a catering business from? :rotfl: How many of you are there, and how well do you know them?

helen88_2

Thanks very much for the quick reply. I'm kind of just testing the water at the moment to see whether it's even worth putting time/energy into this, but originally I just wanted to start selling cakes etc at local car boot sales and craft fairs etc to make a bit of extra money. If the inspection failed then it's not the end of the world, it just means this idea will have to go on the back burner for a while - the landlord wouldn't have to put anything right, as I'd just scrap the idea - for the time being at least.

I haven't actually checked my tenancy agreement, so thanks for mentioning that, will do asap.

And fair enough it's your personal reaction, but surprisingly enough not all students are incapable of keeping a kitchen/house clean and hygienic I'm living with 5 of my best friends, so know them very well, so that's not an issue.

Thanks again for the help.

Savvy_Sue

It would be worth having a quick search of this board and the Up Your Income board because I think there are some useful threads about cake making businesses - I think someone there has mentioned problems with EH. Here's one I found on the first page of that board.

Just from my own experience, I think they expect you to have two sinks: one for hands and one for pots. Could be wrong about that.

helen88 wrote: »

And fair enough it's your personal reaction, but surprisingly enough not all students are incapable of keeping a kitchen/house clean and hygienic I'm living with 5 of my best friends, so know them very well, so that's not an issue.

Ah well, I have boys ... DS1 had a kitchen / lounge at one point and it was a bit of an issue FINDING the kitchen whenever I went to pick him up! :rotfl:

Mahmood_Reza

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

It would be worth having a quick search of this board and the Up Your Income board because I think there are some useful threads about cake making businesses - I think someone there has mentioned problems with EH. Here's one I found on the first page of that board.

Just from my own experience, I think they expect you to have two sinks: one for hands and one for pots. Could be wrong about that.

Ah well, I have boys ... DS1 had a kitchen / lounge at one point and it was a bit of an issue FINDING the kitchen whenever I went to pick him up! :rotfl:

Admirable inititative. If selling food for gain (irrespective of size) then you will need to ensure that you comply with all relevant licensing, food and hygiene regs etc - it seems top heavy but it is very easy to get cross contamination etc - local authorities are a good place to get general information from. If only in the embryonic stage what you do will influence your future business model, once past the "pilot" phase if it is inpractical to use the existing premises then check other spaces, eg your local authorities economic unit should have a listing. It goes without saying that based on your expectations/aspirations this is not necessarily a "hobby" so ensure that you register (within time) as self employed (if you do make losses you may be able to use those to your advantage)

paulwf

The problem with having 6 people in the house is you don't really want anyone else in the kitchen whilst you are cooking or there are cakes cooling.

For starters EHO's don't like washing machines being in the kitchen but may allow it as long as it isn't used whilst you are cooking. Next they aren't going to like lots of people wandering about...unwashed hands, potential for hair dropping in food etc. Can you realistically shut the kitchen off for 2-3 hours whilst you bake the cakes, leave them to cool then ice them?

EHO's might also want to see cleaning schedules, this is reasonably easy to implement in a family with one person at home doing all the cooking, but with 6 users of a kitchen it won't be anywhere near as easy.

By all means talk to your EHO as it seems standards differ from area to area but it doesn't sound ideal to me.

helen88_2

Thanks for all the advice. I know that trying to start this up in a student house of 6 is by no means desirable, but it's the only option I have at the moment. I only wanted a way to make a bit of extra cash, but it might not even be worthwhile due to all the formalities!

I've had a good read of the other "cake business" threads on MSE and can see that realistically I probably won't even get past the EHO inspection, but I wanted to ask in this thread specifically about the issue of having a landlord and it not being my own property as I don't want to go to the trouble of sorting out an EHO inspection, buying more equipment etc if I wouldn't even legally be allowed to run the business from the kitchen.

I'm not allowed to post links, but I found a useful website after doing a search on Google for the following terms "uk running business rented property landlord" (not sure why I didn't do that first?!) - if this helps anyone else in a similar position.

Gothicfairy

Also with regards to landlords, checking what sort of insurance they have would be a sensible thing to do as well. Reason being if you (using your idea as a example) say burned the house down during your work then it might be that they would not allow the claim if they were not informed.

paulwf

If you can't get past landlord or EHO you could use the time to improve your skills and find the right equipment by doing a deal with student friends. Get them to provide the ingredients and give them the cakes in return. You'd have to be careful not to make it a business but getting your housemates to provide ingredients and making a batch of cakes once a week isn't shouldn't present any issues.

Errata

I think you need to think it through a bit more. It isn't just you and your 5 housemates, it will also be all their friends and I can't see how you can 'ban' either housemates or their friends from a common area of the property when you bake.

lynzpower

The other issue is whether your house with its 6 inhabitants is fully HMO compliant?

I think the EHO would be interested if not, and with good reason.