running Ebay business from rented house

G_M

I think the relevant question here is:

"Will there be lots of vans collecting items from the property?"
"Will you be storing large amounts of large items on the property?"

as said above, if there is no impact on neighbours etc I would just go ahead.

owl_lover

Thanks,
the answers are no and no
I already sell a lot of personal things on Ebay, the only difference will be that these are homemade.

moromir

The major implication here is insurance.

You need to make sure you aren't voiding your landlord's buildings insurance by running a business from the property.

Remember you'll need insurance for your stock.

eddddy

An important thing to consider is the insurance (your contents insurance and the LL's building insurance).

Obviously, the insurers will probably never know - unless you make a claim.

For example, if there is a burglary - the insurers may refuse the claim, saying that you may have targeted because the burglars knew there was stock stored in your property.

Or if there is a fire, and the stock is flammable, and makes the fire worse.

In the worst case, if you invalidate the LL's building insurance, you would be in breach of your AST and therefore might be responsible for the cost of building repairs after a burglary or fire.

owl_lover

I don't think insurance would be a major issue.
The stock would be low value things (mostly sweets) and not very much of it ( I hope to have no more than £100 worth of stock at a time), nothing flammable.
I guess my worry is that I ask LL, he says no, and evicts us because he thinks I'll do it anyway.

19lottie82

I wouldn't think it would matter. I run a small ebay business, that sounds similar to yours. I was making some changes to my contents insurance and explained my set up, asking if it would affect my policy in anyway. They said no, as my home wasn't counted as business premises, unless I had clients / customers visiting it.

I assume the situation would be similar in regards to your OP.

owl_lover

That's reassuring.
Thank you

lincroft1710

owl_lover wrote: »

That's reassuring.
Thank you

Not all insurance companies will have the same attitude, so don't automatically assume you will be OK. And to echo what other posters have said, if you buy things in to sell on at a profit, then that's a business.

lincroft1710

TrustyOven wrote: »

So if a person defaults on the business loans etc, do the bailiffs knock on doors / pester the new tenants after the business tenant leaves?

Yes, if they have no other address for the defaulter. Plenty of posts on this site from tenants and new owners who have experienced this.

Talc1234

At worst you are committing a breach of contract which gets you evicted (through the courts so plenty of notice). There will be no other issues

So I say run your business