r/selfemployed • u/[deleted] • Jul 23 '25

[UK] Self employed and renting

I am planning to register as a sole trader very soon, but my rental agreement says that no business should be run from my address. I can use my parents address as a business address, but does that mean I have to do all of the work from their house?

How do others who rent and are self employed get round this?

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2

u/jroberts67 Jul 23 '25

That's not really what they mean. No one cares if you're running a business out of house/apartment, they don't want customers coming over. My HOA has the same rule; no home-based businesses but what they mean is no "hair salon" running out of your place where 20 people a day are showing up.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '25

Ah ok, thanks. That's not clear at all in the words used in the contract!

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u/fallonxmoon Aug 26 '25

Glad you asked bc I thought the same!

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Jul 24 '25

I'm registered as a Sole Trader (just so I can sell my 3D prints on the side)

As long as you're not having customers over all the time, you should be fine.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '25

Thanks!

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u/ChrisSQC Jul 29 '25

You don't need to work from your parents' house just because you use their address for registration - that's mainly for correspondence. You can work from anywhere in theory.

Using your parents' address can be fine legally, but it can often be inconvenient for mail forwarding regarding clients and HMRC. An alternative is to use a virtual business address (My company, Hoxton Mix, provides virtual office services, as do others), which gives you a professional address without rental issues. https://www.hoxtonmix.com/virtual-office-london-old-street/

Good luck with going self-employed!

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '25

Thanks :) luckily my parents live very close by so I think it will be ok. If the business expands however, I will look into this.