Covenant restrictions with working from home

Misskimsi3bee

Hey everyone!
Sorry, this is a long one! 

Myself and my partner are currently in the process of selling and buying, and it is definitely a challenging market at the moment.

Where we currently we live, I work from home in my summerhouse as a massage therapist. I have had no complaints from the neighbours, my business is very quiet, and my clients park in our drive so they don't block anyone else. In our deeds, there are no covenants restricting this.

We are interested in a house in which I could convert the garage into a lovely treatment room, and there is plenty of private parking with the property. However, the deeds state that the house or property as a whole cannot be used for business purposes.

These deeds were created back in the 60's by the estate company, however I do not think they are in business anymore. I have also noted that a lot of gardens have sheds, summer houses or conservatory's - it is also stated in the deeds that no structure whether mobile/immobile/temporary or permanent can be added.

I am at a complete loss on this - the deeds are 60 years old, and obviously times have changed. I work from home have been since after lockdown due to me being able to earn more working for myself. I am of course insured and always follow the correct protocol with being self employed.

Any advice would be amazing please! Has this happened to you? How likely is it that something bad would happen? 

Thank you

elsien

You can take out indemnity insurance. Parent ran a Nursery School for many years from a property which had a covenant saying a business couldn’t be run from the premises, although the covenant was a lot older – she also couldn’t take a horse and carriage down the drive.
Slightly different situation in that the solicitor failed to pick the covenant up when she bought the house, and it was only when she wanted to extend it some years later than it was noticed. It was never a problem for her. 

It really does depend on how likely your neighbours are to complain, (probably more so if your customers are being a nuisance with regards to parking ) and if they do complain, whether there is anyone around who would interested in enforcing the covenant. 

user1977

elsien said:

You can take out indemnity insurance.

Generally you can't insure against a breach which you haven't made yet - insurers are only likely to be interested if it's already been going on for a while with nobody kicking up a fuss.

prettyandfluffy

I think it's unlikely the covenant is enforceable.  Look to see if there are any registered businesses in neighbouring properties (Google maps and companies house are a couple of starting points) and ask your solicitor.

BobT36

I'm not really sure if running a business AT home is usually called "working from home" lol. The latter implies just doing work for another employer, at home. Usually remote office work. 

Using your property "for business purposes" (as in running your own business from there) is a much different beast and very much of interest to insurers and is classed very differently, especially when you have "customers and clients" visiting the property. 

Section62

Misskimsi3bee said:

I am at a complete loss on this - the deeds are 60 years old, and obviously times have changed. I work from home have been since after lockdown due to me being able to earn more working for myself. I am of course insured and always follow the correct protocol with being self employed.

Would you be applying for a massage/special treatments premises licence at the new address?

propertyrental

prettyandfluffy said:

I think it's unlikely the covenant is enforceable.  Look to see if there are any registered businesses in neighbouring properties (Google maps and companies house are a couple of starting points) and ask your solicitor.

Not sure why you say that.

What you might mean is that there may or may not be someone with a right to enforce who is interested  enough to bother to enforce, assuming they become aware of the breach.

The original beneficiary of the covenant (and you don't say who that was) or their successors, may never find out, and if they do, may not care.

Section62

prettyandfluffy said:

I think it's unlikely the covenant is enforceable.  Look to see if there are any registered businesses in neighbouring properties (Google maps and companies house are a couple of starting points) and ask your solicitor.

What the neighbours may be doing is largely irrelevant.

None of us can yet comment on whether the covenant is enforceable or not - not least because we don't know the exact wording.

badmemory

Where I used to live there was a covenant in place.  One of the neighbours became a wfh financial adviser.  After a while he had to stop having clients at home.  He could still wfh but not have clients visiting.  He had to go see them.

Richard1212

It is a common for such a covenant to be in property deeds to prevent using your home as a workplace, no matter how old the covenant. It is not allowed  to break such covenants and may lead to legal repercussions. withdrawal of mortgage, etc. Your solicitor should be telling you the answer to your question or does he/she not know what you want change and to do at the new property ? 

And, in any case, ( covenant or no covenant) the local authority would probably need to give you permission and register your business, and Heath and Safety also have responsibilities and must know of your running a business from your converted garage.

Then there is the whole question of what neighbours think, how many cars are regularly parking and coming and going to your house, what happens when someone complains and you are faced with the consequences and wasted costly change of use and interior of your garage.

IMO this is a clear case of you cannot do what you want to do, and to try and do in the hope that no-one will notice , hear about it or complain, is far too risky----every street knows what goes on and are bound to find out about your business venture and every street always has someone who will openly or anonymously inform the authorities and their property deeds  will have the same covenant so they will know it is not permitted). I think you could be in trouble, perhaps even with your mortgage lender, as well as out of pocket after all your garage conversion works.

My best advice is to find a new home that does not have such a covenant in the deeds and then proceed to inform the local authority as to whether you need to be registered by them or inspected by HSE-----I know that , for example, hairdressers who do exactly what you want to do ( and do not have a restrictive covenant) still need to be registered by the LA , need HSE inspection---and still face complaints about regular car noise or parking issues.

 

Jonboy_1984

The bit that stands out to me is you saying “the property as a whole cannot be used” can you post the exact wording of the full paragraph.