[ekpyrotic]

Quick note, regarding "[c]ontrary to what some people will tell you, you can have your business registered at your home address. You can do so even if your tenancy agreement doesn't allow it (obviously, don't actually go out of your way to tell your landlord about it). I don't know anyone who has gotten in trouble because of this (though I'm sure you can find some rare examples if you try)."

I use to assess people for risk at a premier London estate agent.

We would have discovered this in our research via Company House, and if it had infringed your previous tenancy agreement (which it usually would have) we would have: (1) declined any potential tenancy outright, (2) told the future landlord that you had operated a business out of your previous address, and (3) left the final decision to the future landlord.

In the same job, I saw CCJs and Bankruptcies filed against the Landlord's property (when businesses went bust with debts to their name) because inexperienced estate agencies and property management agencies didn't properly vet their tenants.

[ryanwaggoner]

How ridiculous. If you want to run a steel mill out of your kitchen, that's one thing, but not allowing someone to write some code for a side business in a spare bedroom?

I own multiple rental properties and these scenarios are the least of my worries.

Plus, how would a risk check know what was part of your previous tenant agreement? Do people in the UK submit their previous lease with each application?

[ekpyrotic]

Ryan, firstly, operating a business out of a tenetted address would not have been a concern, using that address as the registered address on Companies House would be. That can result in serious legal implications for the Landlord at a later date.

Quoting from HMRC:

"If your company or organisation's registered office is in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, HMRC will take action to recover what you owe. This may include:

(i) visiting your business premises to obtain payment or seize your business assets and sell them at auction

(ii) taking legal proceedings to collect the debt through the courts

(iii) in some extreme cases, applying to the court to have your company closed down

Remember interest is accruing from the date your Corporation Tax was due until it's eventually paid. This is on top of the Corporation Tax you owe."

The procedure would run as follows: (1) if the applicant has reported himself as self-employmed, we check whether he is registered as a Ltd. company on Company House. If so (2) we ring the previous landlord and check on any formal or informal agreement regarding using the property as a company registered address.

Our agency was being paid 10-15% of the annual letting fee for letting and managing properties, to my mind checks like these have to be made.

Edit: Usually if you do not have a respectable registered address, you should (1) use your accountant's address with his/her permission, or (2) pay for the services of an umbrella company.