Restrictive Covenent and working form home during Coronavirus

Oscrim

Long shot, but a covenant on the house restricts working for home in the usual form:
1. You can only use the property as one private residential dwelling and not to use the property for any trade or business.
With everyone being pushed to work from home, how many people will be in breach of this currently? Is this a good time to apeal to the original builder for this covenant to be removed from the deeds? I know this shouldnt be a priority in these tough times but it does make me wonder if I can take a positive from the situation.

Jeremy535897

It's not quite the same thing. If your employee asks you to work from home, I question whether you are using it for any trade or business. You might be interested in the attached thread from 2013:
"Who is the landlord? Private or social? And I ask this question because if it's a social landlord, then they will refuse permission to run a business if it would spoil the 'quiet enjoyment' of your neighbours, or cause 'nuisance'. However they should not unreasonably refuse.

I used to work for a Housing Association: you absolutely could NOT do car repairs from your home, for example, but although there was a clause saying you couldn't run a(ny) business, permission would be granted if it wasn't likely to impact on neighbours.

I agree that it doesn't matter what other neighbours are doing: if YOU are in breach of your tenancy agreement then it's your home on the line, not theirs. And two deliveries a day would have some impact - clearly it's been noticed, and you don't know that this person hasn't complained about several other neighbours.

On that basis I'd be looking for a way round this ...

Also note that if it's a private landlord, then you may find that the tenancy agreement says not to run a business because that's a condition of the mortgage. If that's the case, you definitely need to find another solution."

I suggest there are other forums here that will know the answer better.