Starting a business whilst in a rental property

sugarbabe84

Hi All,


I'm looking to start selling natural soaps and skin care products online. Unfortunately I live in a rental property and like most short hold rent properties there's a clause regarding operating business activities.


I was wondering if anyone has ever come across this sort of challenge?

Kayalana99

Hiya!

I own my own house but even so you're still not allowed to run a business from home.

All I can say is my Dad has been running a printing business for 15 years from his home without issues and I've been running a gift business from here for about 3 years now without problem.

Ok you're not supposed to but are you really going to let that hold you back? I think you need to ask yourself is it going to affect the neighbours (i.e you won't have customers coming in and out or constant delivery vans - I have parcels etc delivered but I'm talking about constantly)

+ as you are in a rental property can you claim the business is at someone elses address and can you play cover up if the landlord/estate agent ever visit?

Perhaps I might be jumped on for this but in short no you're not supposed to!

DomRavioli

If you're found to be breaching the terms of your tenancy agreement they can end your tenancy agreement.

Do you want to be left to find somewhere to live with a bad reference from your current landlord?

If your legally binding contract (your tenancy agreement) says no, then it means no. You can run the risk of not getting caught but you can end up in a whole pile of trouble.

pathtofreedom

I owe a house, for the buildings / contents they ask if you're running a business, this is normally about if you have people coming to your house though. I work from home a lot but I'm always told that doesn't count as I don't need extra public insurance for that.

Could you do a small batch and see if they sell? If that works out ok then maybe ask your landlord if they are ok with it, just as you're not having people to the house. They can only say no, then you could look for a small lockup or something to work from instead.

HappyMJ

sugarbabe84 wrote: »

Hi All,


I'm looking to start selling natural soaps and skin care products online. Unfortunately I live in a rental property and like most short hold rent properties there's a clause regarding operating business activities.


I was wondering if anyone has ever come across this sort of challenge?

If you're just doing clerical work then there's no problem running a business from home especially if you're just drop shipping and no-one ever visits your home.

If you're having more than 3 deliveries per day then your neighbours will start to get a bit annoyed at the constant movement of vehicles. You can still run a business from home if you wish. If the business gets much larger than this then your landlord will probably be informed and you might be asked to reduce the activity or be asked to leave.

Once your business starts picking up think about renting a storage unit or a serviced office somewhere else. The expense can be used against your income to reduce your tax and when universal credits come in it will look much more like a legitimate business rather than one set up for benefits purposes. A small office in my area costs about £27 a week. It's not that much. For example... http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-to-let/property-56793728.html

Flyonthewall

OP if it says you can't then there's no way around it unless you ask your landlord and he agrees. I'd make sure to get that in writing though just in case.

Your other option would be to set up elsewhere. Rent a storage place or use a family member of friends house. That's assuming you have stock yourself and not that you're just selling and it's being sent out by the company you're selling for.

If you're not handling any stock make it clear to the landlord and they may well be fine with it. I imagine they just don't want loads of deliveries, loads of stock in the property or loads of people coming and going from the property. Otherwise it's a case of finding somewhere else to work from.

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I own my own house but even so you're still not allowed to run a business from home.

Course you are. It's perfectly legal to run a business from your own home that you own! You have to inform your home insurance company and you need to register as self employed and inform the HMRC. Depending on the business you may also have to inform the local council, your mortgage provider/landlord or local planning office.

There's nothing to stop you running a business from home though. Thousands of people do so.

https://www.gov.uk/run-business-from-home

Flyonthewall

sugarbabe84 wrote: »

there's a clause regarding operating business activities.

HappyMJ wrote: »

If you're just doing clerical work then there's no problem running a business from home especially if you're just drop shipping and no-one ever visits your home.

Even clerical work is a business activity. The landlord may not realise or they may be fine with it, but if they found out and weren't happy about it they'd have every right to say that OP has broken their contract and kick them out.

All it takes is the landlord popping round one day to check on something, OP leaving her computer on something business related and the landlord noticing it or a neighbour seeing mail with the company name on and informing the landlord. It may be unlikely but just because you think no one will find out doesn't mean they won't.

Kayalana99

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Course you are. It's perfectly legal to run a business from your own home that you own! You have to inform your home insurance company and you need to register as self employed and inform the HMRC. Depending on the business you may also have to inform the local council, your mortgage provider/landlord or local planning office.

There's nothing to stop you running a business from home though. Thousands of people do so.

https://www.gov.uk/run-business-from-home

I'm not 100% sure of the legal side of it but no - when we bought the house I was told that we couldn't run a business on site end off by the lawyer who was sorting our paperwork out. Think I'd get away with just admin but no - nothing else.

Flyonthewall

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I'm not 100% sure of the legal side of it but no - when we bought the house I was told that we couldn't run a business on site end off by the lawyer who was sorting our paperwork out. Think I'd get away with just admin but no - nothing else.

There are some exceptions like your house. On some deeds it may say a business or specific types of businesses are not allowed, but for the majority of houses it's perfectly legal.

Your comment came across as no one can run a business from their house, which isn't the case.

PasturesNew

Running a business takes many forms and if nobody outside can see that you're running a business then it'd be OK. It's not about the business as such, usually, it's about nuisance and risk.

e.g. if you have people coming there, and/or 2-3 deliveries a day, that's a nuisance.
e.g. if you have rare/expensive stock everywhere and dangerous chemicals, that's a risk.

So, how much nuisance would you create -and- how much risk?

If, say, you receive one box of stock/fortnight, then sit on ebay selling it and driving a box of packages to the Post Office once a day, that's hardly nuisance nor risk.

If you're making your own soaps, with the processes that involves, and having delivery drivers coming to your house twice a day to collect parcels, that's risk and more nuisance.

If the landlord's coming over and you can pack your "business" into the boot of your car, that's not so much risk to the structure of his building ... but if you've got a 2nd bedroom racked out with office supplies and all sorts of chemicals, plus £2k of stock ... that's a risk to the structure and, possibly, breaking legal agreements about the use of the property.

tiger_eyes

I run a business from my laptop at home. I informed all parties at each address I lived at (landlord, mortgage company, housing association, insurer, etc) and none of them had a problem with it. More complicated if your business requires more than just a laptop though.