It is frequently thought that there are laws which attempt to govern work from home activity. Many believe that they are not free to just begin a work from home operation because there are rules and regulations stopping or curtailing this. This piece seeks to shed light on the situation so that anyone considering going down this road can be reassured and conscious of the steps they may need to take to keep their work from home conduct in step with any legislation.

First of all, there is no law of the land that says you are not able to Work From Home, set up a home business or operate any commercial activity from your home. An English mans’ home is his castle and there is nothing in law preventing him from, for example doing online jobs or setting up an internet business at home. There are no special permissions to be gained or licenses needed, normally speaking you can just go ahead and do as you please.

However, there could be, probably are, restrictive covenants within the deeds to your house which will restrict you to some extent in what work from home activities you can actually operate. These covenants are not laws, but they are binding agreements which you conceded to when buying your house. These covenants are registered against the house with the land registry and because you have agreed to them when you completed the purchase you are legally obligated to adhere to them and if you do not do so then any wronged party may successfully claim against you.

But don’t panic too much. You can very easily task your solicitor to check out what stipulations are in place, indeed you can even do it yourself. And you will typically find that the covenants do not exclusively forbid Work From Home. They are more likely to constrain you from carrying out certain specific activities which would present an annoyance to your neighbours. For example it is very common to find restrictions against the keeping of livestock, sheep pigs, hens etc, or the opening of a shop or other retail outlet. Any work from home business which involved manufacturing, operating plant and machinery which caused a noise nuisance or involved the constant collection and delivery of materials by commercial vehicles would also be barred. Similarly any business which involved regular visits to your house by clients, with attendant parking nuisance, is virtually certain to be handled by the covenants.

So the carrying out of Online Jobs, an Internet Business or small scale assembly of items are almost always unchallenged. As a common sense rule of thumb all you actually need to do is consider any impact you work from home conduct would have on your neighbours and if the answer is none at all then you are on fairly safe ground. Taking an Internet Business, or other Online Jobs, as an example, these can be conducted with none of the above mentioned nuisance aspects. Indeed if you were operating say a web development business from home then there is probably no way that your neighbours would even be aware of it.

Apply that common sense approach, don’t do anything which will anoy your neighbours and your Work From Home activities will go completely unnoticed and you should not get into any difficulties. However, if you are in any doubt whatever then always consult your advisor.