Home occupation rules vary by city, and most freelancers are probably unaware that they even exist; I’ve moved more than once since I started working as a freelance writer, and I knew that I needed to look up business licenses and so on, but I never thought about getting the city’s permission to work from home. I mean, isn’t that what most of us are doing these days, whether we’re full-time freelancing or running a side hustle?
5 comments:
Wow, I had no idea that a permit is required in some cities to work from home, of all things. I always figured working from home was just a convenience for some people that may prefer staying home with their kids, or working freelance, as this author describes. Although the consequences don’t sound very rough for not reporting it, it is still a risk, and the author doesn’t say what amount the fine may be either. It does, however, suck if you have to face the consequences of not being able to work from home at all, and having to spend money on paying for a new office space, because I think one of the benefits of working at home, is not having that kind of expense. I think the zoning laws are very interesting, though, because that’s actually something that happened in my neighborhood with an empty lot they wanted to turn into a business.
I had no clue most cities required permits for people working from home. For businesses such as hair salons or bakeries, it makes sense for zoning purposes, but I had never thought of the correlation between foot traffic and working from home. I think the two permit system seems to make the most sense. If you are working from home, but do not require people to come to your place of home, there shouldn't be much of a fuss with you working from home. I think it would actually beneficial for a neighborhood community to have someone who's at home while most people are gone to work. As the author mentioned, getting a permit can be nerve wrecking, I mean, if they deny you, you either have to move or quit your job. This kind of fear can prevent people from applying. I do wonder whether if you get a permit to work from home, if you have to pay a yearly fee. I could see how that would deter people from applying for the permit.
This is a super interesting article with all the new buzz around telecommuting dying down and just becoming the norm for a lot of people. My brother works IT and programming for a big company in Boston and he can remote sign in and still do his job so they let him work from home two days a week and sometimes more. Honestly, I am only familiar with the work permit thing for your home from the episode of the office where Michael starts his own paper company and gets a cease and desist from his condo association HOA. I knew that establishing your home as an office can be a big deal in some neighborhoods - we’ve all heard of the sketchy hair dresser in the old run down part of town - but for the most part I expect most from home businesses to be like the author’s, small, computer based and non intrusive.
Needing a permit to work from home is something that I had never heard before today. With a lot of businesses encouraging this, it can affect people who are not just freelancing. Now understandably it might be hard for the city to find out if one is operating out of ones home because any tax filing status as working from home is never seen by the local town, but that still doesn't mean it cant happen. I also think that this has a lot to do with what type of work one is doing at the home location. Most of what we do in theatre is almost impossible to differentiate from listening to loud music or someone doing art, answering emails, or even computer gaming. As such I don't see this becoming a massive issue in our industry because if it were ever to be brought up to the courts, it would be hard-pressed to stick as an intrusion to others in the community. Nevertheless, it should be spread as knowledge to all those freelancers out there that this is a real thing to keep in mind.
Usually when you think of working from home you think it's just asking your boss if you can do that, or else starting your own business that you can create and manage from an in home environment. It's seen as the ultimate workplace freedom, being able to stay home and work in a comfortable environment with no strings attached. But reading this, it makes sense as to why you would need a permit to do so. Working from home is just that - working in a home - and businesses need permits to operate, especially out of zone from a business district. The explanation in the article covers this pretty heavily, and it makes sense. I just wish this was more available and a better known fact. Most people definitely wouldn't think twice about working form home and never even consider they may need a permit in order to do so, but that can lead to consequences later on, especially if you run a small business that gets bigger and more noticeable.
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