letting a property, new tenant wants to run a business?

[360interactive]

What are the legal issues if a new tenant wants to run a small business from a rented property? We're talking about a small ecommerce business with no one visiting the house apart from a few deliveries a month.

I imagine the buildings insurance people will need to know, but what other issues could you run into? Do the council need to know?

 

[The Legal Mango Team]

Hi,

It seems that it is a domestic property. You will need to check your lease/ rental agreement as it is likely that it will restrict your permitted use of the property to non-commercial activities. If so, you will need to consider whether you are comfortable proceeding in breach of the lease / rental agreement.

One option would be to run your plan past the landlord and get their written agreement that they are ok with it - however, it'll leave you in a bit of a difficult situation if they say no, so you'll need to consider this option in detail.

You are right in that you may need to notify the council for council tax purposes - there's quite a bit of information about this available on the internet.

Hope this helps.

 

[360interactive]

Thanks, although I should have made it clear, I am the landlord, but very new to it all hence the concern from my end.

I did some further research and it seems many insurance companies are against it, no matter how small the business and stock amount. To avoid a headache i've decided to just go down the route of not accepting anyone who will be running a business from the property.