Pollyana

Often you should inform them but it depends sometimes on the type of business. I know our home back in the UK had a leasehold clause that no business could be run without council approval.

Over here in Brisbane my rental lease states no business should be run from the home, and the previous two rentals were the same -I assume that means with or without council approval.
From talking to people at work it seems that there are areas here where only certain businesses can be run -for instance many residential areas cannot have mechanics/garages operating from home. Many areas will allow office based activites as these don't affect the neighbours, but nothing is allowed if it has an outside base-such as a workshop. if its a rental property then the lease may be invalid if council bylaws are broken, and the home and contents insurance likewise -my contents insurance definitely says no business activities.

Beoz

Too hard. I'm just going to keep working from home and claim the office space as a tax deduction as the tax avoider I am.

spouse of scouse

There's a difference between working from home and running a business from home.

Like I said, it depends on the business and your particular council's bylaws. Always up to you whether to advise them or not of your home business activities, just as long as you're happy to take any consequences of not advising.

If your business consists of just you and a computer, that's a different story. No customers visiting, no staff, no signs to upset the planning dept., no noise or smells to upset the neighbours (unless you're a particularly noisy or smelly worker)

Beoz

I do a lot of shouting over the phone at useless cheap labour in the sub continent.

spouse of scouse

I knew it. You run a call-centre in India.

Pollyana

OMG is Beoz really Mr Telstra?

Beoz

I might as well be. They hate deviating from the script.

jad n rich

Lately optus put us through to the Phillipines, lovely helpful lady but did wonder what 'orrible rate of pay she was probably surviving on.

Beoz

Oh yes. I wish we would move our Indian opps to the Philippines. Way easier to deal with.

denzil73

Depends on the type of business. Say baking/cooking or a mechanics then you will need a special licence and comply with safety and environmental legal crap.

Otherwise, apart from the tenant being rude then if there's nothing in the rental agreement precluding them from running a business then there's only the council stopping them from doing so depending on the type of business.

Alfresco

Both our rental agreements in Oz and when we rented in the UK stated that no business can be run from the property. It is a pretty standard clause IME.

Pulaski

And unless the tenant is operating a car service and repair business on the driveway, largely unenforceable in practice.

Beoz

Which really means you cannot work from home ...... across the board.

spouse of scouse

I suppose it's one of those things that fits into 'what they don't know won't hurt them' (meaning the Council).

If someone's running a solo internet/office type business from home, they don't have customers coming and going and they don't have a sign up - then no one would know.

I'm probably not telling anyone something they don't already know when I say the local government loves its red tape. I should know, I was a manager in a large LG for 15 years

I was approved by my Director to work from home on an ad hoc basis - but before I could do that, the Human Resources manager had to come out and do a full occupational safety and health check on my house!

As ridiculous as that may sound, the reasoning behind it isn't. If I'd injured myself while working from home, I would have been eligible to claim workers comp. If the injury was serious, Worksafe (State government department) would have been crawling all over the house, as would the Council's insurers. With the possible outcome of a refusal to pay workers comp and huge fines for the Council - which would come out of ratepayer money.

Beoz

You let someone from HR in your house? Are you mad?