Sole Trader Address

MoneyDunce

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to set myself up as a sole trader to work from home (writing, editing audio) on a laptop.

However my lease suggests that no business should be carried out from the address. I'm now too nervous to check the mortgage docs!

This must be a common thing for the self-employed - how do people deal with it? It is not as if I will have customers coming to the house or will be employing anyone...

I'm fairly risk averse and don't want to put myself or my wife in a difficult position but I also don't want to dash my hopes of setting up as a freelancer.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

PlutoinCapricorn

The most important factor is what sort of business you will be running.

Some of us have it easy, me for example. When I registered as a sole trader I gave my home address. This has never caused me any problems, for several reasons. I have paid off the mortgage; I don't advertise as I get all my work by personal recommendation; I have no work-related visitors and, most importantly, my work is all done online or at a desk. I am not running what you might call a "business business", just doing research and similar work at home.

Streams of customers; using up all the parking; noise and inconvenience to others; storing materials and stock that might cause or add to a fire hazard; conversion to commercial use - all these things can cause problems. The clauses in mortgages etc. often refer to these kinds of business, not, for example, consultancy.

tyllwyd

I looked into this last year - the best way around it seemed to me to either rent a very very small cheap serviced office (not easy to find though!) or to use a virtual office service for the business address. You also need to check that your home insurance is ok with a home office.

ukonlineshopping

Do a search for virtual address in Google, plenty of cheap solutions. £20 a year or so, just don't plaster it everywhere so you get mail etc

or

You could set up your sole trader name as your actual full name, Joe David Bloggs. It will only ever go between you and HMRC and you would file a self assessment return anyway. Just use your normal personal bank account.

I have run a sole trader business for years and have never opened any formal accounts and no-one exterior(bar the HMRC) would know.

But to play it safe you could go for a cheap virtual address(i-support-business) and take it from there.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/593233