SolveYourProblem
Article Series:
Start
A Home Business
Is
Your Business Legal To Run From Home?
by Jeff Cohen
If
you’re going to start running a business from home, there are
various laws you must know about. If you don’t check things
out before you begin, you risk having your business shut down
or closed by the authorities.
Zoning Laws
Chances are that different parts of your town or city have
been split into different ‘zones’. Each one of these zones
has a purpose: business or residential. Since you almost certainly
live in a residential area, zoning laws restrict what you can
do there in terms of business.
If you think about it, there are good reasons for this. What
would it be like if someone could just decide to buy up a whole
load of houses and turn the area into a shopping mall, without
getting anyone’s permission? What if your neighbors could just
turn around one day and start using their house as a shop?
I doubt that you’d like that. The laws are there to protect
your neighborhood, and to stop business from interfering with
people’s home lives.
You need to phone whatever local governmental body there is
in your area, and ask them about the zoning laws in your area.
If they’re not helpful, it could be worth a visit to a lawyer.
You’ll find that laws vary massively – here are some of the
things you might come across.
The Strict Zoning Policy
Many areas still operate a strict ‘no-business’ policy in
residential areas, and will come after you if you start a business
without their permission. You’ll need to put in a formal application,
and there could be a public hearing, giving other residents
the chance to object. Time to start being nicer to your neighbors!
You should note that just because there are other home businesses
in your area, it doesn’t mean that you’ll find it any easier
to get permission. The rules may have been tightened up since
those businesses were started. Still, it’s worth talking to
other home business owners in the area, if you can, to see
if you can get any advice.
Percentage Policies
Another common way of handling things is to allow you to use
only a percentage of your house for business, to avoid residential
properties becoming wholly commercial. You might be told, for
example, that only 20% of the house can be used for business
purposes. This can be restrictive if you have a small house,
or if you need to store things. Worse, areas with a policy
like this are usually completely unwilling to vary it for you.
Restrictions by Industry
It’s worth checking if there is a special exception in the
zoning laws for what you plan to do. Artists, for example,
are often excluded from the laws (where are they supposed to
work – the art office?), as well as people who give home tuition,
like music teachers. Doctors and dentists are another common
exception.
Signs and Traffic Rules
You might find that the laws have special restrictions on
signs and traffic. You could be restricted from putting anything
on the front of your house that could be considered ‘advertising’,
meaning that you can’t even have a sign with the name of your
business. If you plan to have lorries or trucks bringing deliveries
to your house, then that can pose a big problem, especially
if someone complains about them, or there are lots of children
in the area.
Visitor Rules
Another contentious issue is visitors. For some reason, people
get upset if a lot of visitors keep coming to your house –
they like their street to be quiet, not constantly busy. Some
laws allow only a set number of visitors to your home business
per day, or restrict the number of visitors that you can have
at one time.
Breaking the Law
A footnote to all this is that millions of businesses are
operated illegally out of people’s homes, in violation of the
relevant laws. They keep their business secret, because they
know that admitting what they’re doing would probably get it
closed down. This approach obviously isn’t recommended, though
– you should always try your best to do things legally, and
consider moving house if no-one seems to want your business
in the area. # # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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