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Hi,
We are in QLD in a body corporate of three townhouses. Our new tenants are running a hairdressing business from the garage. We run the body corporate altogether but the owners knew nothing of this and the body coporate wasn’t informed of this. We are concerned about the impact this would have on our insurance as well as is this legal? We have already had one problem as the four of them smoke and all her clients smoke and we all agreed many years ago to be non smoking and the tenants were given the by laws on this. There is no by laws on running a business from their gargage. Any advice would be appreciated.
Ann
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If some aspect of running the business is causing nuisance, then it is likely that you could apply the general by-law that most places have on nuisance. This prohibits anything that causes an unreasonable or substantial nuisance, or words along those lines. I expect the owner and the tenant of the property would usually be held to be jointly and separately liable in Qld as in the ACT and elsewhere.
On the other hand, if the conduct of the hairdressing business is not causing any substantial nuisance, why worry about it? In that case, just deal with the smoking directly via the by-law on that. You could require the tenant to notify the clients that it is a non-smoking site.
Another possibility is that the business would be contrary to local council rules in a residential area but that might be drawing a long bow. Lots of people conduct small businesses from home.
In most jurisdictions this would be considered a change of use by the local council so it is to them that you should complain.
Regarding the smoking, do you have your “non-smoking agreement” enshrined in a by-law. If not you can still look at state health regulations regarding smoking at or near a business.
Under section 21 of the standard Qld tenancy agreement (below) the tenant need special permission from the owner to use the property as anything else than a residence. If the owner hasn’t given that permission, then they have grounds for eviction
You also have to ask if this business is using separately metered water and if its presence affects your insurance.
Sir Humphrey is right to say that plenty of people use their homes or garages for small business – I am doing it right now – but one of the key questions is if that business has any impact on residents and, especially, if there in increased foot traffic through the scheme because of it.
That said, there can be compromises. Free hair-dos for the residents, perhaps? I have heard of a townhouse where one owner illegally kept a race horse in his yard – but repaid the flexibility of his neighbours with hot betting tips.
21 Tenant’s use of premises – ss 10 and 184
(1) The tenant may use the premises only as a place of residence or mainly as a place of residence or for another use allowed under a special term.
(2) The tenant must not –
(a) use the premises for an illegal purpose; or
(b) cause a nuisance by the use of the premises; or Examples of things that may constitute a nuisance –
• using paints or chemicals on the premises that go onto or cause odours on adjoining land
• causing loud noises
• allowing large amounts of water to escape onto adjoining land
(c) interfere with the reasonable peace, comfort or privacy of a neighbour of the tenant; or
(d) allow another person on the premises to interfere with the reasonable peace, comfort or privacy of a neighbour of the tenant.If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
If insurance is your biggest concern, then one thing to do is to notify your insurer and ask if they are concerned. If they want a higher premium the NSW Act might have a provision for passing on the cost to the unit owner.