Updating post from Reddit.
Hi All,
I've been considering starting up a side business to bring in some extra money on top of my day job. Just as a freelancer, so it'd be deskwork. I've got a standard rental agreement that says I can't run a business without permission, but my landlord is pretty chill so I can't imagine he'd have any issue with it if I asked him. But I'm interested to know if there could be any financial implications? Could my rent potentially be increased because of it? I'm guessing my contract would be changed or some extra documentation would be needed? Thanks in advance
If you're just doing deskwork, don't bother mentioning it to him imo.
It's mainly just an insurance thing where some insurance policies will invalidate if the tenant is doing 'business' on the premises.
He'd probably rather you didn't tell him.
That's useful to know thank you!
The contractual requirement is antiquated but sometimes still relevant - if you wanted to wholesale yarn and wool on Etsy having several metric tonnes of flammable material over and above the standard contents is a major fire issue and pushes firmly towards total loss in the event of a fire; same with paperwork and filing a few decades ago but less so now. Anything online I would say is impossible to argue unless you registered a business there I guess?
Why tell him? Don't say anything and the LL will never know.
I say this as a LL.
Haha thanks! I was wondering if this would be a better option... if I end up registering it as a business further down the line because its going well (fingers crossed!) for tax etc, Is there anyway he could find out at that point?
I suggest you register at a virtual or accountants address
Interesting! I didn't know that was a thing, thank you I'll bear that in mind if I get to that point
DO NOT register your company at the rental property, or get business letters posted their, or anything like that.
You can take meetings in Coffee Houses or whatever, dont be doing business on your rental premises. This protects both you and the landlord.
The implications are that you tell your landlord, its a breach of your contract and they can use Section 8 to evict you. They may not do so, but if they fail to get the proper insurance in place they too could be in trouble if something goes wrong.
So, its good to have the "business" elsewhere and you are just "working from home" a lot.
You want to google your latest Chamber of Commerce, they will have a mailing system setup where you can put their address and they will email you when their is post or anything. A benefit here too is you get access to their members benefits, which can help with your side business.