Running a business in a residential strata scheme

@elephant said:
are business permitted to be run from a residential strata unit?

Basically, yes, provided that doesn’t break the law (drug dealing, prositution etc), contravene planning regulations or alter the insurance liability of the building without Owners Corp approval.

For instance, this website is edited from an apartment in Sydney but in doing so I am not affecting the insurance status of the building (this could change if mobs of angry strata professionals laid siege to the building).

But what if someone set up as a part-time massage therapist? Clients would have to come into the building but the risk could be so minimal it might be ignored.  It would be a different story if they were queuing up in the lobby.

However, council might take a different view – it’s a change of use, after all – in which case it could be seen as breaking the law. A hairdresser or nail salon would probably be beyond the pale because of the smell from chemicals.

My building has housed a drug dealer (who claimed he was a private detective) and a hooker but she only did out-calls.  The dealer had to go, the hooker got to stay.

To cut a long story short, it depends on the busines.  But even if yours is entirely legal, if it involves clients comeing and going all the time or the storage of potentially dangerous materials, you could be in a spot of bother.