Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

After watching a lesson of the pro course I checked my deeds which say (of course!) that I can’t operate a business from our home. A friend works at a solicitors who bascially said I shouldn’t but as the council (is an ex council house so they ‘made’ the deeds) will probably not find out it will probably be ok – if not they just say you have to close and you close. Problem is you have to register with the council’s food safety team. I’ve now had an email from the food safety team with general guidance in response to other questions including “we strongly suggest you contact the council’s planning office to see if you will need planning permission for change of use”. Does anyone know if this planning permission will therefore be a sort of edit to the deeds or is this a separate thing? I don’t know whether to contact them (drawing attention to myself) to try to do things correctly or not. I just want to do a few cakes part time (so my hobby pays for itself) and don’t want to be shut down before I’ve started! Any advice? Thank you

I’m sure someone else will put your mind at rest but my understanding is you will be fine…I ran a hairdressers from home and the council just needed to know that I wasn’t going to have seven cars parked outside etc. I am now running a cake business from home and just had to do a food safety course and fill out a questionnaire…I also run a transcription business from home, have done for 20 years, and I’ve never had a problem, just ensure you have the right insurances in place would be my advice.

Hope this helps – Joe

Hi Musicrach

In my experience it is always best to run things past councils before embarking on any venture. Councils are not there to be unhelpful, however they do have to ensure all safety aspects of any business. If they do get wind that your business is without PP they may not be quite as co-operative as you’d like . I would advise better to declare than be caught out. Just have a chat with them, they appreciate being consulted and like to be seen helping people seeking business opportunities. As you’ve said, you need to register with them so I guess the departments will be connected.

Ex council and council properties do have clauses attached to them re running businesses from home, you must contact them. If non council you sometimes do have to apply for planning permission I didnt but my friend in neighbouring county with different council had to.

Hi Musicrach
It does vary from council to council, but in my experience the deeds only become an issue if a complaint is raised by a neighbour which they are duty bound to investigate. I have a friend at West Lothian Council who is well connected with others in Scotland and they do not have a policy of policing deeds where businesses operate from home.
You need to register with the council for the food hygiene aspect and to the planning department IF you are making any structural changes to the property to accommodate your business, but again from the same contact there is no cross referencing between departments.
If it is in the deeds then a formal approach to the council will just have that reaffirmed to you and in doing so have raised an alert to them which would prevent you from ever operating from home. If it were me (and we did ) I would operate from home ensuring that neighbours were onside (cakes and cupcakes help) and make sure that your business doesn’t not cause them and nuisance or inconvenience.
This way you should be able to operate under the radar – thousands of others do.
Sorry I can’t offer the reassurance that you are looking for but hope this helps.

Kind regards
David