I found out that my AST tenants have got two private limited companies registered (few months ago!).
Companies house document show the property address against following row >>
“Registered Office Address : xyz lane, post code”
My AST states following >>
“Use of Property
…
Not use the property as anything except a private home. However, you may work at home as long as (a) you do not use the property to run a business and your homeworking is purely incidental to using the property as your private home; and (b) this use is not forbidden by the superior lease.
…”
Reading similiar topics on here, I can’t find any general consensus, but as soon as I saw the words ‘notify insurer…mortgage provider’ , I am now in panic mode.
Registering a company at the address will not necessarily cause any problem on its own. Running a business may or may not cause a problem depending on the type of business. A breach of contract could occur if the tenants use the property to receive clients, store goods or as a contact address for advertising. You should enquire further, but not assume the worst.
thanks.
Point taken that its down to type of business. But surely it has to be written in law, somewhere, either via AST or via company law that they must get approval of the landlord…no ?
The point is a landlord relies on tenants to declare their business, preferably before registering it/running it/finding out. Its in interest of everyone. Isn’t this protected by law anywhere ?
No, there is nothing in law. You could put something in the tenancy agreement forbidding registration of a company, but its a bit ott and a judge may find it an unfair clause if its needed for their business.
If you wish, you could express your concern that they didnt consult you and ask more about the business.
Many trademen operate their business as a Ltd Co. eg. A heating engineer might have a Ltd Company, but they don’t really run a business from the home address… they parks their van there & visits clients fixing boilers all day. This wouldnl’t bother me as a Landlord.
A term forbidding this would in my opinion be unfair.