You May Need a Permit to Work From Home
I moved to a new city last fall, and this spring I learned that I need a housework permit to work as a freelancer from my apartment.
Homework rules differ from city to city, and most freelancers are probably unaware of their existence; I have moved more than once since I started working as a freelance writer and I knew I needed to look for business licenses and so on, but I never thought about getting a city permit to work from home. I mean, isn’t that what most of us are doing these days, whether we are full-time freelance or part-time jobs?
Home work permits were originally designed to regulate types of home businesses that could potentially disrupt a residential area, such as kindergartens and hairdressers. In some cities, such as Portland, homework is divided into two types depending on how many pedestrians they bring to the area: freelance writers don’t need a housework permit, but freelance tutors do. Other cities require all small business owners and sole proprietors to obtain home occupation permits if they wish to conduct their business away from home. Even if you are a third party marketer, you may still need to apply for this permit and make your home business official.
How to determine if you need a residence permit
Visit your city’s website and look for the small business and zoning sections. Information about permits to occupy a home should be in one of these sections. If you cannot find what you are looking for, or if you want to be attentive, call your city’s zoning office and ask. Here’s what I did and they helped me a lot!
Be aware that you may need a Home Permit even if your company address is different from your home address. If you spend most of your time working from home, the city may decide it counts as a home occupation.
How to get the landlord’s permission
If you are not the owner of the home, you may need to prove that your landlord has agreed to your home before the city grants you a permit. If you own a condominium or are a member of a homeowners association, you may need approval from the property manager and / or HOA. In some cases, even notarized documentation may be required.
In my case, the landlord already knew that I was working from home; we discussed this when I was looking around the building and I made it clear in my lease application. This made it relatively easy to talk about permission to do homework: I sent an email explaining that I needed permission, attached a copy of the permission for review, and asked the landlord to confirm that he was comfortable with my work from home.
If you switched to freelancing after moving into your apartment / flat / home of the HOA, you may have to ask for permission instead of reconfirming it. This may sound a little awkward, but don’t let this intimidate you. Be as direct as possible about your work (“I spend about 40 hours a week writing and storing articles from my laptop, occasionally over the phone / Skype”) and the minimal impact it will have on your neighbors.
What happens if you skip permission?
At this point, you’re probably thinking, “There are a lot of freelancers in my city. Everyone can’t have permissions, can they? What if I just … don’t get it? “
Necessarily well. You can continue to work from home without permission and you may not be caught – after all, you have been working from home for a while and no one tried to stop you. If the city finds out about your home business, one of two things will happen:
LIKELY SCENARIO: The city will send you a letter that essentially says, “Hey, we saw you working from home. We need you to fill out this permission request and we can fine you for not asking for permission earlier. ”
Worst-case scenario: The city will send you a letter asking you to close your business immediately.
Assess your risk tolerance before proceeding.
What happens if you apply for a permit but are denied?
If you do not get permission to get a permit to work around the house, you can appeal. If all else fails, you need to stop working from home. This is difficult because most people – whether employees or freelancers – work from home every day; Checking emails in the morning, preparing spreadsheets late in the evening – anything that doesn’t fit into business hours.
In your case, you probably want to find a coworking space or rent an office where you can do most of your business. Yes, you will still be making a few business calls or sending emails from home because everyone does that . However, your day to day work will be somewhere else.
Contact your city’s small business association for advice, and call the zoning office again to clarify your plans: for example, do you need to open a mailbox so your business is no longer associated with your home address?
Remember, your city wants you to be successful. Homework permits have more to do with adhering to boundaries between commercial and residential areas than anything else, and if you can prove that your business does not violate those boundaries, you are likely to get your permit approved.
And yes – the freelancing you do to make extra money is considered a business . So treat it this way, even if it means asking for permission to work from home.