Running a business from a rented property

chickenlady_3

A friend of mine was asking me for advice on becoming a childminder, and one of the things that came up was whether she would be allowed to as she is in a rented property. She won't ask her present landlord as he is vile so she is moving, but does anyone know if this is likely to cause any problems?

I own my house, so this didn't apply to me when I became a childminder, but I did have to change my house insurance to a specialist insurer, so it occurred to me that this might be the reason some landlords wouldn't allow it.

Does anybody know if this is likely to put a landlord off? She would have her own contents insurance, but obviously not buildings insurance. Or would there be other issues do you think?

Thanks

HugoSP

I've known plenty of people who ran childminding businesses from council houses.

It all depends on the tenancy agreement. As a LL myself I personally would not object on the condition that the tenant went though the proper channels and got the property assessed. Then, depending on what was needed to make the house suitable, I may make a contribution.

I would need to see a written confirmation from social services, or whoever inspects the house that the house was suitable to give my approval.

I wouldn't want to be awquard, especially if the childminding business is helping to pay the rent, but as a landlord I normally strive to make the property suitable for letting, not childminding, so I would need to know what (if anything) would need to be done to make it suitable for childminding.

However, if she goes via an agent for her next property, they will almost certainly say no. They will do this to make life easy for themselves.

nelly_2

I reckon half the businesses in the country are in rented offices

subjecttocontract

Be carefull.

Many leasehold properties have a clause forbidding the running of any business from the property.

If you rent such a property and ignore the restriction you will be evicted by the landlord.

scrummy_mummy_2

One of my clients asked permission to become a childminder in her home (my property they rent)....I had no problems with it, but the mortgage company did!...Mortgage Express advised me that she would not be able to operate a business from the property as a tenant and that was because she would need public liability insurance because she had clients on the premises and that they couldn't legally guarantee she would take this out, and couldn't legally check to see that she had.
I have recently moved my mortgage to the Woolwich and they have a specific clause in the mortgage agreement prohibiting tenants from operating a business from the rental property.

If the LL goes ahead and allows the tenant to do it anyway, they would class this as breaking the terms of the mortgage and could ask for immediate repayment of the outstanding balance from the LL or indeed, instigate reposession proceedings!

Most tenants think that the LL owns the house....this is wholly wrong!!! Most of us are mortgaged and it is the LENDER who owns the home and, until the LL has paid off the mortgage we have to dance to the lender's tune!

wysiwyg68

I rent my house privately and asked my landlord if she had any objection to me running a childminding business from home.I told her about needing to put stairgates in etc, I also told her who I would get public liability insurance with and she was happy for me to be a childminder. In my opinion its best to check with the landlord before doing anything about childminding.

lor-la

I too am really keen to get into childminding. We own the property we live in but it is a share of freehold/leasehold flat. It does says in the lease that running a business from the property is not permitted. Does anyone know any way of getting around this or has anyone had similar problems and have done something to get permission granted?

If I can't childmind from here I think we are going to have to consider moving. In this economic climate we can't afford for me not to work and I love children and want to bring up our own baby so childminding is the perfect solution. Moving is a nightmare situation as we only bought this flat in Feb and have totally renovated it. :mad:

Any advice is very welcome.

Thank you.

PasturesNew

If you want to run a childminding business from home then you should take note of the comments above, e.g. mortgage company not allowing it, but also you might need planning permission to do it. And an AST might only be for 6 months and you couldn't be running a child minding business that kept moving about.

brrrr-its-cold

wysiwyg68 wrote: »

I rent my house privately and asked my landlord if she had any objection to me running a childminding business from home.I told her about needing to put stairgates in etc, I also told her who I would get public liability insurance with and she was happy for me to be a childminder. In my opinion its best to check with the landlord before doing anything about childminding.

Hi, just nearly at the end of a long process in renting a property, I'm a childminder, my LL to be is happy for me to childmind from his property but the Buildings Insurance wont insure me as I am a "Business" would you be able to help me with who your LL uses as it seems to be some Insurers will cover Childminders and others wont.

Many Thanks

bazzer100

Hi, i think it could easily put a landlord off. my boss let out property and tried to avoid pets and kids because of the wear and tear. I would really advise against advertising this at the tenancy interview. You obviously want to be honest about it, but if it's a private landlord in decent condition, it's not going to help at a time when the rental market is so buoyant because mortgages are virtually non-existen.

crucial_2

Hi

I have a leasehold property with no mortgage which my son and his wife and my 2 grandchildren live in, my daughter in law wants to run a childminder business from this house,but the lease states that no commercial business can be run from this property, can the leaseholder reasonably refuse to let me give them permision.