had a visit from Council as doing a business in the garage

wantoknow_2

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Is she a private tenant or is it a council property?

Which department of the council has she been asked to ring?

There are a series of potential issues from breach of tenancy agreement if its social housing to breach of planning permission

The council man was from Development and environment department

da_rule

Even if they are using a registered waste disposal company there are, as has already been pointed out:

1) Storage on the property of potentially dangerous chemicals
2) Possible pollution stemming from this storage (oil seeping into soil/water table etc)
3) Environmental health matters outside of the above, such as noise pollution/odours etc emanating from the garage
4) Using a domestic dwelling for partial business use without seeking change of use
5) Not paying business rates in relation to this
6) Putting any waste from the business into the domestic waste may also breach council policies and waste disposal regulations
7) Failure to register with environmental health department
8) Failure to have adequate health and safety procedures in place
9) Further problems if anyone else was employed to work for the person doing the stripping

As well as the council, the landlord (who if any sort of enforcement notice is served would also be notified) may have some concerns:

1) Damage caused to the property (including gardens and the soil below) would need to be rectified
2) Running a business from the property is likely to be against the terms of the tenancy
3) If your friend received any payment (whether in money, goods or services) then this may constitute sub-letting which may also breach the tenancy agreement (as well as opening up a potential charge to income tax)

PaulW922

Wait until he has moved and then call them on Monday! If she says that she didn't realise there was an issue, that it was only temporary and the business has now moved, I don't think there will be an issue.

There is no problem working from home, selling on eBay as you suggest. It is using the premises commercially that is the difficulty.

Aquamania

wantoknow wrote: »

Hello
My friend is a single mum, rents two beds house with garden and a garage. She let her friend do a car business in her garage. He take parts from the broken cars and sells them on ebay. They have a new car by the garage every week. The waste is disposed safely. But she has car parts stored in her garden and the garage.
Today she found a card from the council on her door set, asking her to contact council as the neiboroughs complained that she has a business in her garage. Also he just let a unit to move all his stuff to on Saturday.

What is the best thing to do in this situation. what council can do? she unofficially helps him to sell parts on ebay. He registered as a sole trader a few weeks ago.

Thank you

What do you think?

Is it?:

(a) Ignore the request entirely
(b) Contact the council as requested
(c) Consult the local butcher for more advice

Answers on a postcard please... :cool:

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I know my councils environmental get really twitchy when they ask some to contact them and no one does.


It reminds me of the local story here when they took test samples from a local river near where a scrap yard was located they found high levels of multiple contaminants in above water soil, river water and river bed materials they took samples of, they returned to the scrap yard to investigate why, they looked around and cars were stored near the banking by the river, oil petrol diesel and hydraulic fluid was all over the concreted ground, they identified the source and had the scrap yard clean up, they also found allot of breaches to how a scrap yard should be run and how things should be stored and disposed of, they gave them 13 weeks to rectify, when they returned the scrap yard they weren't allowed passed the gates and this made them dig deeper and deeper, until they got granted a warrant to enter the premises where they went the whole hog on the owner, took him to court and he got fined massively and he was ordered to removed and dispose of the entire concrete in the yard 10 feet deep of soil to be removed including the whole yard and river banking, place storage steel tanks below ground for oils fuels and hydraulics and have a licensed waste carrier empty them periodically, have approved storage racks for cars and have a decontamination pressure washer at the gate for lorry and cars entering and leaving the gates so that oil and other fluids aren't left on the street when they exit to go into drains.

motorguy

wantoknow wrote: »

Hello
My friend is a single mum, rents two beds house with garden and a garage. She let her friend do a car business in her garage. He take parts from the broken cars and sells them on ebay. They have a new car by the garage every week. The waste is disposed safely. But she has car parts stored in her garden and the garage.
Today she found a card from the council on her door set, asking her to contact council as the neiboroughs complained that she has a business in her garage. Also he just let a unit to move all his stuff to on Saturday.

What is the best thing to do in this situation. what council can do? she unofficially helps him to sell parts on ebay. He registered as a sole trader a few weeks ago.

Thank you

Even when he moves on, your friends mechanic friend will likely have the council all over him like a rash - and rightly so. Hes breaking a load of environmental laws by setting himself up as a one man breakers yard.