My tennant wants to work from home- insurance issues?

First time poster. I have a house rented to a tennant who now wants to work from home and a dietician/ nutritionalist. Clients will be visiting the premises.

1) Am I under any obligation to allow the tennant to work from the premises?

2) If I allow her to work from the house, who is responsible for taking out the correct public liability cover? Is it me because I own the house or is it her because she's running the business?

3) Are there any obvious pitfalls or potential disadvatages to me as the landlord for letting her run a business from the house?

I have done lots of google searches and cannot find anything comprehensive on this. Cheers.

She should be paying rates on the property if she is running a business from the property.

1) I don't think so. It's one thing if someone's working from home in lieu of going into the office, but entirely another if there are clients visiting.

2) Messy. She should be responsible for it but may not have the appropriate standing with an insurer where there's already house insurance in place. If you actually wanted to go down this road (and I wouldn't!), the best thing would probably be for you to check your policy with your insurer and find out how much extra it would cost, put in in place and then recoup from her. She could then declare the cost as a business overhead for tax purposes.

3. It changes the character of the tenancy. You'd need to amend the lease and get good legal advice on any implications for you. Off the top of my non-expert head, apart from the possible insurance liability there's a planning implication (almost certainly need to get consent to "change of use") and probably liability for commercial rates.

If it were my tenant, I'd say no - there are just too many problems.

Thanks, they are the answers I kind of expected! Seems like far too much hassle.

mercman said:

She should be paying rates on the property if she is running a business from the property.

Click to expand...

As the tenant proposes to live and work at the same address, surely rates are payable only if she set aside a particular room as being "for business only"?

My understanding is that if a business is been run from a property, it is then liable for Commercial Rates.

There may also be planning issues regarding "change of use" as the property would be a (partly) commercial premises rather than residential.

Parking for clients may also be an issue for other residents in the area as may extra traffic and a steady stream of of short-stay "callers" to the property.

If there is a mortgage on the property, the type of mortgage may also need to be changed - talk to your mortgage provider if you have one.

All in all I think there are just too many headaches for a landlord and no real gains.