Permission for complementary therapy salon living in a housing association property?

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Hi all, this is my first time posting on any forum ever.To summarise I live in a Southern housing association property. I originally trained in beauty level 2 & body massage & reflexology level 3 Vtct in 2007/08 but was unable to pursue it. I decided to retrain & have just finished a Vtct level 3 in Complementary therapies-Aroma,Body massage & Reflexology, with a view to doing treatments at home. I had storage rooms attached to the side of my house that I insulated the walls, ceilings & put heating in, floor etc & its now ready to go but I need permission from Southern housing to do the treatments from home. I am nervous to approach them because I know as with most situations its how you word things that can often make a difference in the answer you get.I am not sure holistics or beauty are eligible businesses to run from one of their properties. Has anyone had this situation? Tia for taking the time I am very grateful:)
 
I didn’t think you can run any business from housing association properties but I could be wrong. Rules vary a lot and I think it’s less about how you word it than your think. They’ll have a flat yes or no policy so best to just ask :)
 
Thank you for coming back to me BannerPenguin it is much appreciated 🙂I believe you can run a business from home but you can't use your address to advertise ie. no sign outside the house etc. Also you are allowed to do call centre type jobs, taxi bookings, support workers etc.via phone & computer being self employed but as far as Massage therapies-aromatherapy, beauty & hair is concerned its unclear. I wonder if anyone else has some experience of this? Kind regards
 
Contact the housing association first then depending on what they say, your local council next. Both will clarify whether you are allowed to or not.
 
Hi Noodle thank you for your reply. I will definitely contact my housing association /local council. I wonder if any other readers had any personal experience of this? Thanks again
 
I used to be a non executive director of a large housing association. We had policies to support and promote employment opportunities for tenants and also to promote happiness and wellbeing. They won’t have an “the answer is “no” now what’s the question” policy. They’ll be reasonable.

Why don’t you read through your rental agreement and see if it mentions running a business from home? You can also look on their website and see if the subject is mentioned.

There might be a telephone number for customer service - I’d just ring up and ask what the procedure would be if you wanted to give a few massage treatments from Home and mention that you have a garden room that you’re thinking of using.

I’d also do your homework and find out what the Council regulations are in your area - make sure you can comply.

Your HA will want to make sure that your business doesn’t cause a nuisance to your neighbours. They will worry about additional traffic and parking in the area and the possibility of late night visitors.

I would suggest that you just think about what business is likely to happen over the next 6 months. How many visitors do you think you might manage a week? If you think (for instance) that 5 clients a week is a good number, then say so, if you are only offering treatments during school hours then mention this. And so on. Even if you are aiming at 40 clients a week - it’s hardly likely that you’ll achieve this in the next few months, so I’d try and have an informal discussion about what is likely and then you can follow this up with a request in writing.
 
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Thank you Duchess for your insight that is really helpful. I will give them a call & take it from there.
 
Information about the way that you can use your home should be in your tenancy agreement, it will be clear on if you request from your landlord permission to run a business. If you can request, then it is a good sign.

Good luck !
 
Hi Rachael_GGN, thank you for your reply, I have decided to put things on hold for the moment because of covid. As a new business I have put my feelers out & the general concensus is now is not the right time for me atm, kind regards and good luck with what you are doing also
 
Hi I rent from Guinness Partnership and they said yes I can work from home with a review period to see if there was any disturbance to other residents. That was 6 years ago and everything has been fine, in fact it is other residents noise that sometimes interrupt my treatments!
 
Hi I rent from Guinness Partnership and they said yes I can work from home with a review period to see if there was any disturbance to other residents. That was 6 years ago and everything has been fine, in fact it is other residents noise that sometimes interrupt my treatments!
Hi Penny71, thank you for sharing that I am delighted it worked out for you that sounds really positive & gives me hope for when I approach Southern housing. Whilst training I had case study's come to my home & my neighbours have noisy visitors a couple of times a week so I tried to do the c.s when they were out. I tried to mitigate this when converting the storage rooms by using sound insulation & a fire door but forgot the obvious the window🙄 so with a view to fitting some sort of sound proofing and some light relaxing back ground music I hope to resolve it for me 🤞but of course now there is the issue of covid & having free flowing air, I will have to get my thinking cap on. Good luck Penny & thank you for taking the time to reply it is very much appreciated.
 
Hi Flossy,

You are welcome and can relate with your decision, it has been a similar story for me too. I was considering setting back up although the recent new covid rules mean that I know I'm not going there.. maybe not just yet anyway.

Wishing you all the best for your future set up, in positive mode you'l be able to gather all the info you need whilst it's all going on.
 

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