It is repeatedly thought that there are rules which aim to regulate work from home activity. Many believe that they are not free to actually start a work from home operation because there are rules and regulations stopping or curtailing this. This article seeks to shed light on the situation so that anyone thinking about going down this avenue can be reassured and conscious of the steps they may need to take to keep their work from home conduct in step with any rules.
First of all, there is no law of the land that says you cannot Work From Home, set up a home business or carry out any commercial activity from your home. An English mans’ home is his castle and there is nothing in law stopping him from, for example doing online jobs or setting up an internet business at home. There are no unique permissions to be sought or licenses necessary, typically speaking you can just go ahead and do as you please.
However, there could be, probably are, restrictive covenants within the deeds to your house which will constrain you to some extent in what work from home activities you can actually take part in. These covenants are not laws, but they are binding agreements which you agreed to when buying your property. These covenants are registered against the property with the land registry and because you have agreed to them when you completed the purchase you are legally obligated to adhere to them and if you do not do so then any wronged party may successfully claim against you.
But don’t panic too much. You can very easily get your solicitor to check out what covenants are in place, in fact you can even do it yourself. And you will typically find that the covenants do not specifically forbid Work From Home. They are more likely to restrain you from carrying out certain specific activities which would present an irritation to your neighbours. For example it is very usual to find restrictions against the keeping of livestock, sheep pigs, hens etc, or the establishment of a shop or other retail outlet. Any work from home business which involved manufacturing, operating plant and machinery which caused a noise nuisance or involved the constant pick up and dropping off of materials by commercial vehicles would also be disqualified. Similarly any business which involved steady visits to your house by clients, with attendant parking nuisance, is virtually certain to be handled by the covenants.
So the carrying out of Online Jobs, an Internet Business or small scale assembly of items are almost always acceptable. As a common sense rule of thumb all you actually need to do is consider any impact you work from home conduct would have on your neighbours and if the answer is none at all then you are on quite safe ground. Taking an Internet Business, or other Online Jobs, as an example, these can be operated with none of the above mentioned nuisance aspects. Indeed if you were running say a web development business from home then there is probably no way that your neighbours would even be conscious of it.
Use that common sense approach, don’t do anything which will anoy your neighbours and your Work From Home activities will go completely unnoticed and you should not get into any difficulties. However, if you are in any doubt whatsoever then always consult your solicitor.
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