Mini Salon at home and mortgage arrangements

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sunshineinme

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Dear Geeks

I need your honest opinion.Is it me or is it THEM? :)

I am working currently part time as a mobile therapist but I will be offering soon Gelish and i am growing more and more into an idea of having my box room done into my mini nail salon.

I rang my beauty insurers and they're fine with it- they cover me wherever I work (obviously they don't cover me if someone steel anything from my home).

But I also rang my mortgage people (Barclays) to ask them how they would be looking at my mortgage if I do 5 hours a week nails at home and.... they told me that I would have to change my mortgage to COMMERCIAL ONE!

So I said that as far as I am aware this will ban me from living in my own house as one is not allowed to live permanently in the commercial propery :) And I asked the man I spoke to over the phone if he ever seen a bed & toilet in a greengrocers... that probably didn't go down well.... I explained to him that we are talking about 1 room being used few hours a week for business not changing and requalifing 3 bedroom house into a commercial property.

Saddly he didn't know what to say and wanted to put me through to the department which deals with commerical properties.... awww...hopeless!

I used to work for Barclays for a bit so I am allowed to comment on their customer service ;)

Anyway- when you were setting up our nail/beauty/holistic rooms at your homes did you have to change your mortgages?

I feel like Barclays is trying to rip me off or at least waste my time :( again!

Thank you all in advance for your imput!

xxx
 
hello, i don't have an answer but am also in a similar situation where i want to work form home and am in the process of buying a property. the guy whos doing our mortgage said not to mention it until we had one and then tell the insurance company. so confusing as everyone says something different but we as therapists just want to do our jobs and not get into trouble!
look foward to any replys you get.
 
Aaa ok, so it appears that it would be only the case of changing the home insurance arrangement not the whole mortgage?!

Let's hope we'll get done more advice :) It's too confusing :)
 
Bump :) please help me :)
 
I wouldn't tell the mortgage company. As long as mortgage repayments are being met I dont see why they need to be informed. It's not a commercial property at all and I think the chap you spoke to probably had no clue what he was talking about. Ie, if you decided to run an office from home, would that make it a commercial property - no. You would need a change of use to commercial, and no council would allow that for a small beauty room in my opinion. hth
 
Hi Elaine! This is exactly what I think! It doesn't make any sense to me informing mortgage people about my room! Maybe home insurance yes.

But I saw someone here saying it's the way things must be sorted.

Can anyone else advise?
 
I'm not sure if my reply will help very much as I do not currently own my own house, I am mobile but looking for my own property as we speak!

I have researched this subject and went along to see my local council, who informed me when starting my own business from home, I should start i.e in the chosen room so they can see the set up, they would then come to inspect and work out any charges I had to pay, rates and such like.

I was not aware you had to inform the mortgage company, if it turns out you do and this would cause problems I may have to rethink my 5 year plan! Frustrating!
 
Hi,
I moved my salon to my house back in the summer, I use a downstairs room (previously a games room) before I relocated I spoke with the council, they weren't interested in me, told me that it was fine as long as my neighbours were happy and that I have enough parking. I also needed to change my insurance policy, I spoke with our mortgage/insurance broker and they sorted it all out for me, my insurance has gone up a bit but it's a 'working from home' insurance with NIG. It covers me for everything Inc. Buildings, contents, product and public liability and more!! I was advised that I didn't need to inform the mortgage company as I wasn't changing the use of the house. It is still my home!! There are so many people that work from home, I'm sure not everybody tells their mortgage company!! As Elaine said, as long as you can pay your monthly payments I'm sure they wouldn't give two hoots!!

Hth!! Xx
 
Thank you! I have much more confidence now to do it!

All makes sense! Thank you x
 
Hiya!
I used to be a mortgage advisor and before that i was an underwriter at Barclays/Woolwich - the person you spoke to was probably reading from a script in Mumbai - if its not a question they get asked alot they wont know the answer!!

in short you do not need a commercial mortgage to run your business from home as mentioned above - a commercial mortgage would indeed mean you couldnt live at your property - on a house you would be looking at a buy to let mortgage which isnt going to suit your situation!!

If you are worried about your mortgage then pop into the branch and have a chat with a fully qualified advisor and/or ask to speak to the senior underwriters. But personally I wouldnt bother, i'd be more inclied to ring your house insurers and check they are happy. Plus speak to your accountant about being able to offset your heating etc against tax!!

incompetent call centre staff at banks used to be the cause of daily stress for me previously because alot of them just dont understand your requests! If you use your spare room as an office its more or less the same question - if that were the case nearly all of us would need a commercial mortgage!

hope that helps!
 
Hiya!
I used to be a mortgage advisor and before that i was an underwriter at Barclays/Woolwich - the person you spoke to was probably reading from a script in Mumbai - if its not a question they get asked alot they wont know the answer!!

in short you do not need a commercial mortgage to run your business from home as mentioned above - a commercial mortgage would indeed mean you couldnt live at your property - on a house you would be looking at a buy to let mortgage which isnt going to suit your situation!!

If you are worried about your mortgage then pop into the branch and have a chat with a fully qualified advisor and/or ask to speak to the senior underwriters. But personally I wouldnt bother, i'd be more inclied to ring your house insurers and check they are happy. Plus speak to your accountant about being able to offset your heating etc against tax!!

incompetent call centre staff at banks used to be the cause of daily stress for me previously because alot of them just dont understand your requests! If you use your spare room as an office its more or less the same question - if that were the case nearly all of us would need a commercial mortgage!

hope that helps!

Amy you're a star! Thank you for your great advice!

It is really helpful and reconfirms what I suspected- that it's not me but them ;)

I will be contacting only my local council and insurers! That's it :)
 

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