Hiya,

Looking for a little advice here....

I have just started working for a company who uses a residential property as their premises and found out they have not informed the council of a change of usage as they did not think they would have to.

There are six people working in a three bedroomed house with one of the employees actually living on site. There are two car park spaces and I park on the road. One on the neighbours across the road has took great distain to this and reported the company to the local council.

My questions are :

1- I am asuming the local council DOES need to be told
2- What penitlies will be given, if any ( premises used for 1 1/2yrs)
3- What would be our next step, I have been on Sheffield Council website and found nothing.

Please help, I kinda wanna keep my Job

I can only assume that the neighbour is diappointed at losing a car parking space or..............



















is it a brothel?

There is a little bit of advice here:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/genpub/en/1011888237904.html

What business is being carried out at the premises? Just desk work? Any callers?

Because someone is still living there, you can play on the "primarily a residence" angle.

I suggest that your first step should be to telephone the Planning Department for informal advice which you could do without identifying the property involved.

Planning Enquiries: 0114 273 4215

I don't think that there are any penalties, but the council could instruct you to stop the business until planning permission is granted (or refused).

it all depends on what action the council takes.

1. "you" are legally obliged to notify your mortgage co. if you use your premises to work from- this applies to all domestically registered work i.e not self employed builders ,windowcleaners etc.
2. the council could object to any alterations made to the fabric of the building.
3.the change of use covers all sorts of issues & requires the premises to be assessed by the council. i changed my garage to an office & had to submit plans & comply with building regs.
then there is the issue of insurance, right to trade, parking provision etc.
i would have though any one setting up a business would have researched in a bit more depth or is the "ostrich syndrome".

The work being carried out is stictly desk work and the only caller are DHL.

There have been no alterations to the exterior of the property and the person who has lost her parking space has a large drive. I feel this person is only bitter as her partner is running a business from their premises and has a works van parked outside their property at night and this may have been a problem in the past when the drive to my works premises was bening covered. As this has occured in the past I have taken great care not to park outside her house so not to cause any bother

There is actually no mortgage on the premises as it was bought out right

Thanks for all your help

The deeds to the property also need to be checked because there might be a covenant in them stating that the property cannot be used for business purposes.