Why do apartment house rules forbid business?

Dilisk

In the House Rules of an apartment block, I recently saw the following:

"Apartments should not be used for trade or any business purpose."

In the House Rules of another apartment block, I recently saw the following:

"Not to use the Premises or any part thereof for any illegal or immoral
purpose nor to allow any trade or business to be carried on there."

I understand the reasons for forbidding "illegal or immoral" activities, but
why forbid trade or business?

Is this rule intended to apply to a person in PAYE employment who is working
from home?

Is it intended to apply to a self-employed writer who works at home?

Balmed Out

id imagine thats ok, more on the lines with someone who might have customers calling over making noise etc

athtrasna

Balmed Out wrote: »

id imagine thats ok, more on the lines with someone who might have customers calling over making noise etc

This plus traipsing customers through common areas are the usual reasons. Insurance is a big factor as well as additional wear and tear where there are shared entrances

davo10

There are lots of reasons including insurance, public liability, noise etc but the one that probably annoys the most is that a debt can be registered against the trading address of the business, who would want disaffected customers calling to a business address long after the business owner has fled the scene.

ted1

Dilisk wrote: »

In the House Rules of an apartment block, I recently saw the following:

"Apartments should not be used for trade or any business purpose."

In the House Rules of another apartment block, I recently saw the following:

"Not to use the Premises or any part thereof for any illegal or immoral
purpose nor to allow any trade or business to be carried on there."

I understand the reasons for forbidding "illegal or immoral" activities, but
why forbid trade or business?

Is this rule intended to apply to a person in PAYE employment who is working
from home?

Is it intended to apply to a self-employed writer who works at home?

Well it's zoned as being for residential and it's planning permission is for residential use. The block insurance is for social and domestic use.
From a residents point of view a business would extra people being on site causing both a nusance and security issue and then there's the car park spaces being used by clients.
Then there's the issue of shared services , the buisness will be using things like bins. Why should people's service charge be used to find other people's commercial ventures.

CatFromHue

I always thought that clause was meant to stop prostitution

pwurple

A business is a change of use. Planning permission would be required, along with payment of rates. Different insurance etc.

Plenty of apartments are built on top of commercial units... I think mixed use developments work well myself, but that doesn't mean turning place upside down running business from the center floor, and housing on the ground floor. Planners are involved.

Victor

pwurple wrote: »

with payment of rates.

This. In the period 1979 to ~2010 residential property mostly attracted no taxation, business property did.

Eric Cartman

also immoral acts not welcome, who sets the bar on what is or isn't immoral.

Dilisk

pwurple wrote: »

A business is a change of use. Planning permission would be required, along with payment of rates. Different insurance etc.

Does this apply in the case of a self-employed person who works quietly at
home and doesn't see clients at his home?

meathstevie

In extremis it would but it's not like a management company or a landlord has a power of entry, search or seizure to verify for example if an accountant living in an apartment in has been doing some work on his computer.


It's probably aimed at the likes of knocking shops and drug dealing more likely. It's not like something that's already illegal needs more prohibiting by some clause in a rental agreement.

DivingDuck

In addition to the legal/taxation concerns mentioned above, would you really want the security of your housing development to be compromised with unknown randoms regularly being buzzed into the building because they have come to do business? Or for your building to become a target for criminals because they knew money or saleable stock was being held on the premises?

Self-employed people working from home who don't have clients calling and whose business doesn't make noise wouldn't cause these issues, and are highly unlikely to attract the ire of the Management Co. I suspect this rule would only be enforced in the case of suspected law-breaking, concern over insurance liability issues, or in the event of complaints, none of which should arise if you're just sitting quietly in your flat and working away.

If you're running a shop or your business is cabinet-making then you're going to have problems, but I can't imagine a writer would get into difficulties with this. How would they know when you're working and when you're not? How do they draw the line between a self-employed writer working exclusively from home, and a programmer who sometimes, but not exclusively, brings work home with him? How much work is too much work?

You could always contact your Management Co about this, but if you've already bought or are renting, in this instance I'd say it would be easier to simply work away, and if it's causing any problems for anyone, they will let you know. If you're considering buying, it might be worth a conversation with them beforehand to get an idea of how they would feel about it.

If it's just the address which is a problem and not the work itself, you can always hire a PO Box to get around that angle completely.

The_Conductor

Eric Cartman wrote: »

also immoral acts not welcome, who sets the bar on what is or isn't immoral.

It is illegal to run a brothel or indeed any of a long and meandering list of business types- without a license (if one exists).

Any activity likely to result in offense to reasonable people's sensibilities- could be deemed immoral- but then you're going down the road of defining what a reasonable person is- and how they may be offended by an activity when someone else might not be.

I'd be pissed if my next door neighbour decided to run a brothel- I don't want random strangers who I've never seen before in life wandering around our community day and night- there are plenty of children who play here- there are security gates which keep them safe- and stop them running out on the road.

Vis-a-vis the brothel itself- I couldn't care less- providing its activities and clientele didn't impinge on my ability to enjoy my own property.

Morality- is a movable feast- you will always get some religious nutters- or do-gooders- who get a bee in their bonnet about something. These people- and their wishes- really should be filtered from the expectations and reasonableness of the rest of the community- before a level of reasonableness is determined.

Vis-a-vis running a business- I pay insurance for public liability- as it stands. I live in a residential development. If you add a business into the mix- my insurance would shoot up- reflecting the changed nature of the development.

Then you have rates- which were touched on above- wholly aside from property tax etc- would the property be rateable- and how would this affect dwellers there? A mixed development is subject to different council rules- than is a residential development (as I discovered when council workers decided to use a kango hammer outside my bedroom window at 6AM one Saturday morning).

On the brightside- with commercial units present- you're more likely to find service providers are happier to supply services that they might not consider economical for a purely residential development. I've had fibre to the door here for the past 16 years- something houses up the road only got 3 years ago when UPC launched a service in the area.

So- pros and cons- but there is a definite cost associated with having commercial units/businesses (whatever) associated with a residential development. Its not just a financial cost either. Who pays this cost?