Working from home and home business use

andy444

Hi, I am currently in the purpose of purchasing a house and I have found out that the property is subject to a covenant which states:

"Not to use or permit to be used the said land or any part thereof for the purpose of any trade or business whatsoever and shall not permit the said land to be used for any purpose other than as a single private dwelling house and garage but this shall not preclude the practice of medical practitioner or dentist."

I am currently working from home and I will likely to continue doing this for the foreseeable. Can I just check that working from home does not count as business use and won't break the above covenant?

emmajones1976

You sat on the sofa in your pants with a laptop replying to emails in your local authority job (as an example) or whatever isnt the same as running as business from home.

So no, it doesnt break it in any way, shape or form. Even if it did (which it doesnt), how would anyone know?

elsien

It doesn’t count, but even if it did then unless it’s a more recent covenant then chances are there’s no-one around to enforce it anyway.
The Victorian houses in my area have a covenant about not setting up businesses. Hadn’t stopped the newsagent, hairdresser or pizza place although at times I wish it would 

Grumpy_chap

You'll be fine assuming you are juts doing office admin work yourself.  Not having visitors to the property for work.

In any event, who would be the beneficiary of the covenant?  It is only the beneficiary of the covenant that can enforce it.

You should, though, verify with your Conveyancing Solicitor for peace of mind rather than a random bloke on the internet.

andy444

That's what I wanted to hear, thanks all.

I did consider checking with my solicitor but I know that it would take several days to get back to me so just thought I'll check here.

NameUnavailable

As above, doing work from home isn't the same as running a business from home. The clause is there (and is usually in leases) to avoid people running a business that might affect neighbours, i.e. constant deliveries, customers calling, noise from machinery etc., as well as potential need for change of use from residential to business.

EndlessStruggle

I have a similar covenant in the house I am buying and it includes the same as yours but solicitors, accountants and other roles and slightly different wording. I've taken it to read (and that I would argue) that you can't run a business or a trade with footfall/nuisance but a profession that is administrative/requires office work at the home is okay. As others say, how would they know what you are doing and how would what you're doing be to anyones detriment? Many of these covenants are old, mines from the 1970s so not surprised they don't fit in with the modern world.

user1977

EndlessStruggle said:

Many of these covenants are old, mines from the 1970s so not surprised they don't fit in with the modern world.

You'll get them even in newbuilds, for similar reasons. No matter the precise wording, nobody's going to spend time/money enforcing it unless you're actually causing a problem.

AFF8879

I’m buying a new build and there’s a similar clause, followed immediately by “provided that incidental use by an office based professional person working from home shall not be a breach of this covenant”. My guess is this was always the case, but they’ve started to make it explicit in newer contracts post the pandemic.

lookstraightahead

If you have a business from home and it's your office, wont it be a problem registering it etc? 

Titus_Wadd

Our house is only 6 years old but the NFH who is the original builder and his wishy washy solicitor (who writes whatever the NFH tells him to) accused us of running a business last year.  My husband has just taken voluntary redundancy to look after me full time and I haven't worked for 15 years!  Over lockdown our grown up kids moved home so they could save their rent and buy homes in other parts of the country as they and their partners were furloughed or working from home.  Curiously this wasn't the reason for the letter before action we were sent but because half of our garage was temporarily full of boxed belongings from our kids' rented homes.

Our solicitor gave theirs short shrift, and we've heard no more about it.  The builder, via his solicitor, has even threatened us with breach of covenants that don't actually exist (part of an on-going harassment campaign).  Working from home, especially under lockdown conditions prescribed by law, isn't running a business.  Many businesses these days could be run from a laptop at home, but whether it would draw attention from neighbours or the covenant beneficiary would depend on lorries arriving with stock or materials or customers calling on a regular basis.  The younger the house the greater the risk of someone challenging your work-use of your home I suspect.