Latest / Anele and the Club on 947 / Is working from home just living your normal life, or can a landlord actually say you’re running a business?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Wake Up with a fang, wake Up and the club
- 0:04Speaker 1: on nine four seven.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I know the.
- 0:07Speaker 3: Economy is in the doll drums because everybody's trying to
- 0:09Speaker 3: make an extra penny from someone.
- 0:11Speaker 4: Right.
- 0:12Speaker 3: So there is a lady who wrote a she didn't
- 0:16Speaker 3: write a letter, she posted the story. She has always
- 0:22Speaker 3: worked at an office, right, and now they are allowed
- 0:26Speaker 3: to work from home more than they work at the office.
- 0:28Speaker 3: It's kind of like a fifty to fifty split, especially
- 0:30Speaker 3: around the petrol price. She's renting her apartment. It's a
- 0:34Speaker 3: two bedroom apartment, but if her townhouse set up and
- 0:37Speaker 3: listen to this, her landlord is threatening to increase her
- 0:42Speaker 3: rent because he says that she is now treating the
- 0:47Speaker 3: apartment as a business place, and he is well within
- 0:50Speaker 3: his right to charge her more for rent because she
- 0:53Speaker 3: works from home. And in my moment, I'm like, I
- 0:56Speaker 3: don't know. It's a very thin line and it's very blurred,
- 0:59Speaker 3: but I don't think she's necessarily running a business from
- 1:03Speaker 3: her apartment. But she is doing business from her apartment.
- 1:08Speaker 3: Do you catch where the problem could lie?
- 1:10Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because if let's say I'm I
- 1:13Speaker 1: have a fat that I rent out for example, yeah,
- 1:16Speaker 1: to you guys. I can see how we got here,
- 1:19Speaker 1: so I rented out to you guys. You just stay there.
- 1:21Speaker 1: But as soon as you're running a business from there,
- 1:24Speaker 1: I think it's a landlord. Maybe i'd feel like I
- 1:26Speaker 1: can charge you more. I suppose that.
- 1:28Speaker 3: Is he allowed to do that, because can your landlord
- 1:31Speaker 3: charge you more for working from home? To say that
- 1:33Speaker 3: you are now officially running a business there, I think
- 1:36Speaker 3: the only time you'd be to see you want to
- 1:38Speaker 3: jump in here. I think the only time you would
- 1:40Speaker 3: say that I'm running a business from my apartment is
- 1:42Speaker 3: if people are coming to the apartment to conduct business.
- 1:46Speaker 4: But I think there's been a change because think about
- 1:49Speaker 4: it in terms of the rental industry in general, there
- 1:52Speaker 4: is residential and there's commercial property. Yeah, right, But if
- 1:55Speaker 4: you consider how we are all living working post COVID,
- 2:00Speaker 4: I would imagine that some residential places have now how
- 2:03Speaker 4: to relook how they structure contracts, because ultimately you're using,
- 2:07Speaker 4: like you're saying, what happens when you start having to
- 2:09Speaker 4: see people who come to meet with you at the complex,
- 2:13Speaker 4: where do they park?
- 2:14Speaker 1: How do we account for all of that?
- 2:15Speaker 4: If there are ten of you who are now basically
- 2:18Speaker 4: working from the complex and bringing all of that onto
- 2:21Speaker 4: the property.
- 2:22Speaker 1: You see, I don't think you can charge me extra
- 2:23Speaker 1: if it's me working from home. I work from home
- 2:27Speaker 1: on weekends. Are you going to charge me extra? You
- 2:29Speaker 1: know that doesn't make sense to me. But now I
- 2:31Speaker 1: know that Cindy's going to pop over to my place
- 2:34Speaker 1: because we live close by and we're both working together
- 2:36Speaker 1: from my house. Now it's an office, so is that
- 2:39Speaker 1: when he's allowed to I'm saying that's in my mind
- 2:42Speaker 1: when it becomes an.
- 2:43Speaker 3: Office, because I'll tell you, I want wait to go
- 2:46Speaker 3: see a Dolly here at is it massing guitar towers
- 2:49Speaker 3: here by Benmore?
- 2:52Speaker 1: Because she sells wigs right right?
- 2:54Speaker 3: So then I thought I was going to her shop.
- 2:57Speaker 3: I get there, Ah, it's her apartment that she's renting
- 3:00Speaker 3: everywhere and four people working in there installing, And I
- 3:03Speaker 3: was just like, your landlord would not be happy to
- 3:06Speaker 3: year that this is what's going on here.
- 3:08Speaker 5: I think for me it would only be if the
- 3:09Speaker 5: business actually But then even still, you pay for your
- 3:12Speaker 5: own electricity, so you can't even say, oh, it's costing
- 3:15Speaker 5: me more in electricity maybe water, But I know that
- 3:20Speaker 5: in order for you to run a business in a
- 3:24Speaker 5: residential area, it has to have business rights, So there's
- 3:27Speaker 5: a whole legality around this. I truly would not mind
- 3:30Speaker 5: if my tenant ran a business from their house, provided
- 3:33Speaker 5: that the rest of the people in the complex aren't
- 3:36Speaker 5: getting irritated by people coming in and out because not
- 3:38Speaker 5: costing you anything extra.
- 3:40Speaker 3: Yeah, this is why I was saying the economy's low
- 3:42Speaker 3: for because for the landlord to see an extra back. Yet,
- 3:45Speaker 3: just because this lady started working from home, I think
- 3:48Speaker 3: it's him, just.
- 3:48Speaker 1: Like the landlord doesn't like.
- 3:50Speaker 3: It's the money grab.
- 3:51Speaker 1: The landlord doesn't like this tenant.
- 3:52Speaker 4: Yeah, and unless, guys, that was the initial agreement, you
- 3:55Speaker 4: can't justify charging her. You can't change the terms of
- 3:58Speaker 4: our agreement halfway because when I move in, no one
- 4:01Speaker 4: says to me, are you going to be working from
- 4:04Speaker 4: the apartment, for example, you've changed the.
- 4:06Speaker 1: Terms of your residing. No, she's just whole change that you.
- 4:10Speaker 1: It was just going to be you living there. Now
- 4:12Speaker 1: there's four people every day to an office.
- 4:14Speaker 4: So would you charge me for if I was if
- 4:15Speaker 4: I was unemployed. Now I'm there all by myself in
- 4:18Speaker 4: the apartment all day.
- 4:19Speaker 1: No.
- 4:19Speaker 4: Yeah, So are we saying that peak and off peak
- 4:21Speaker 4: hours to be in my house.
- 4:24Speaker 3: On one one eight thirty eight nine four seven. I
- 4:27Speaker 3: want both parties to come forward here. If you're a landlord,
- 4:31Speaker 3: call us, would you charge your tenant more if you
- 4:33Speaker 3: found out that they were now permanently working from home?
- 4:37Speaker 1: Yeah? And I know a lot of people are working
- 4:39Speaker 1: from home. Yeah. Have you run into issues with this
- 4:42Speaker 1: kind of stuff where maybe two of you from the
- 4:44Speaker 1: office now meet up at your house exactly, you guys
- 4:46Speaker 1: are working at your house.
- 4:47Speaker 3: You know, what do you allow and when do you
- 4:49Speaker 3: when do you start going? Uh, when they start coming
- 4:52Speaker 3: through to work at the house, when she starts having
- 4:54Speaker 3: team building or a weekly meeting with her eight staff
- 4:56Speaker 3: members at the apartment that they're ranting you and then
- 5:00Speaker 3: other side as well. If you're a tenant and you
- 5:02Speaker 3: now work from home, fully, let's say one day tomorrow
- 5:05Speaker 3: your landlord calls and says, hey, I'm aware that you
- 5:08Speaker 3: are not working from home. The rent's gone up? Was
- 5:10Speaker 3: you running a commercial entity out of a residential property?
- 5:15Speaker 1: And you know how this happens because the landlord's not there,
- 5:19Speaker 1: that the body corporate is and they've sent a letter
- 5:22Speaker 1: to the landlord saying excuse me, sir, you are running
- 5:24Speaker 1: an office day.
- 5:25Speaker 3: Someone snatched zero eight to four double zero double zero
- 5:29Speaker 3: nine four seven if you want away and either way
- 5:31Speaker 3: on this one. On the WhatsApp voice notes, no no,
- 5:34Speaker 3: no no no. Guys working from home versus running a business,
- 5:39Speaker 3: that's two completely different things.
- 5:41Speaker 6: What happens now when she's on holiday and she's at
- 5:43Speaker 6: home for like a month?
- 5:45Speaker 4: Is he gonna say, I'm charging you because you're you're
- 5:48Speaker 4: treating my apartment as a hotel.
- 5:49Speaker 3: You cannot do that because what has changed? Am I
- 5:52Speaker 3: not paying for my electricity?
- 5:54Speaker 1: The landlord cannot do anything. There's a fixed contractor gross sign.
- 5:57Speaker 1: There's no breaches as a landlord.
- 6:00Speaker 4: I mean, really, how does that work?
- 6:01Speaker 1: Would you charge your tenant also for having.
- 6:04Speaker 3: People come visiting?
- 6:05Speaker 4: It doesn't work like that.
- 6:07Speaker 1: A lot of contracts have that commercial if this is
- 6:10Speaker 1: a residential not commercial property, mine doesn't. Oh really did?
- 6:15Speaker 4: I could run a little touch shopping there if I
- 6:17Speaker 4: wanted to. I've looked at the price of tea bags
- 6:19Speaker 4: I saw yesterday big controversy on Twitter. Someone paid seventeen
- 6:22Speaker 4: rand So I'm stucking up on Joeco? What's the other one?
- 6:25Speaker 1: Five?
- 6:27Speaker 4: Let all of that out of my guest room from
- 6:29Speaker 4: tomorrow tips.
- 6:31Speaker 3: Good morning, Naomi Yan, How are you were?
- 6:34Speaker 1: Great?
- 6:35Speaker 3: Naomi, you sound very serious. You know exactly what you're
- 6:37Speaker 3: talking about.
- 6:40Speaker 7: No, Well, I've got an idea because my mom started
- 6:43Speaker 7: her own business and we had moved into a new
- 6:45Speaker 7: house and she had to register the business to the
- 6:48Speaker 7: property and the rates and taxes changed. So I would
- 6:53Speaker 7: understand if she was running a business because the property
- 6:56Speaker 7: is connected to the business. May the agile is just
- 7:00Speaker 7: working from home. It shouldn't make a difference whether you're
- 7:02Speaker 7: home five hours a day or ten hours a day.
- 7:04Speaker 7: That shouldn't change a thing.
- 7:06Speaker 3: But so let's say I'm working from home, but I
- 7:12Speaker 3: used to rent a business property and I'm the boss, right,
- 7:16Speaker 3: And now I've told everyone, guys, that's it, go back.
- 7:17Speaker 3: Everybody's going to work from home. So you are running
- 7:20Speaker 3: your business from home.
- 7:22Speaker 7: You're running your business, yes, because now you've had to
- 7:24Speaker 7: change your business address to your home address.
- 7:26Speaker 8: Right.
- 7:27Speaker 3: Oh, so as soon as you change your business address,
- 7:29Speaker 3: the home at risk and that justifies the rents going up.
- 7:33Speaker 7: Well, yes, because as a landlord, he has to register
- 7:36Speaker 7: the property as property.
- 7:39Speaker 8: Yes, yes, And.
- 7:41Speaker 3: What was the difference like in the rates and taxes
- 7:43Speaker 3: from where it was just living there to running a business.
- 7:46Speaker 7: I'm not sure, but it does grow up. I was
- 7:48Speaker 7: in school, so I didn't know the ends and outs.
- 7:50Speaker 7: All I knew was that it changed the rates and taxes.
- 7:53Speaker 8: It puts you into a completely different practice if you can.
- 7:55Speaker 1: Because this is the other thing. Remember not all residential
- 7:58Speaker 1: properties can be zoned, as can measure properties. So this
- 8:01Speaker 1: is the thing as well. That's what I'm saying. If
- 8:03Speaker 1: you're living in a complex, I.
- 8:05Speaker 3: Just feel like with this landlord, it's such low hanging food,
- 8:08Speaker 3: and I think they're just being petty because it's it's
- 8:11Speaker 3: you alone with your computer and the Wi Fi.
- 8:14Speaker 1: Yeah, but you can go down to this road there
- 8:16Speaker 1: and go sit at the seattle do your work there.
- 8:19Speaker 3: Ross and Centurion, good morning, Hi, good morning.
- 8:22Speaker 8: See how are you guys?
- 8:23Speaker 3: We're great? Ross the landlord, Hey.
- 8:27Speaker 8: Right, Yes, So I spent it in the works. Let
- 8:31Speaker 8: me let me put this in there. So you say
- 8:36Speaker 8: that you went to a lady and she's got weeks
- 8:38Speaker 8: at her place, right, Yes, And somehow a fire starts
- 8:43Speaker 8: and the place burned down. Yes. And the insurance company
- 8:48Speaker 8: comes to the landlord and says what's been going on
- 8:53Speaker 8: as a unit. And then the insurance company finds out
- 8:57Speaker 8: that a company was being run from there, and and
- 9:01Speaker 8: now the claim gets canceled because that was not disclosed.
- 9:04Speaker 1: You see.
- 9:05Speaker 6: You see, Oh you must be a hit at parties.
- 9:10Speaker 6: Just don't have it in your apartments because it didn't
- 9:14Speaker 6: declare that you're running a club.
- 9:16Speaker 1: Right, I have a question, So have you come across
- 9:20Speaker 1: as you are a landlord? Right?
- 9:23Speaker 8: Right? I am a landlord and I have come across
- 9:28Speaker 8: some instances where we had to look at it and
- 9:33Speaker 8: make a decision. But it wasn't the person wasn't making
- 9:36Speaker 8: money they would they were. There wasn't any visitors coming through,
- 9:40Speaker 8: and there was no treat in terms of anxiety and
- 9:45Speaker 8: you know, safety and and someone was going to get
- 9:48Speaker 8: hurt and excessive visitors and noise and all of that.
- 9:53Speaker 8: There was nothing of that. So nothing was changed. But
- 9:57Speaker 8: another instance, it's someone selling chemical from their house and
- 10:03Speaker 8: something goes wrong there.
- 10:04Speaker 3: You know, there we go, what about if I start
- 10:08Speaker 3: making fit cooks? Right, so I make a thousand fit
- 10:13Speaker 3: cooks from my apartment that I'm renting from you ross,
- 10:16Speaker 3: but I'm not selling them there. I make them and
- 10:18Speaker 3: then I take them and I go sell them in
- 10:20Speaker 3: the street.
- 10:21Speaker 8: Does that there is absolutely no problem with that because
- 10:25Speaker 8: there's no influx of visitors. There's there's not ten different
- 10:30Speaker 8: people coming through to pick up. Because here's the other
- 10:33Speaker 8: thing as a landlord that a lot of people don't realize.
- 10:37Speaker 8: Like so, if you're renting a place the body corporate,
- 10:42Speaker 8: I don't want to see that they limit you to
- 10:44Speaker 8: the number of visitors that you get.
- 10:46Speaker 3: But I would say they do.
- 10:50Speaker 8: They do you go over a certain number and they
- 10:55Speaker 8: now'll start charging you for the calls and for printing
- 10:58Speaker 8: those tickets with the nick number on it and all
- 11:01Speaker 8: of those things. So that's where the that's where the
- 11:03Speaker 8: problem comes with.
- 11:04Speaker 4: So let's question from me from our little call cent operation,
- 11:07Speaker 4: how many laptops allowed before we have to declare?
- 11:11Speaker 8: I would say if I would say two, yeah, you
- 11:14Speaker 8: see here is more than two people.
- 11:16Speaker 1: And also you as your faith cook, let me just
- 11:18Speaker 1: quickly talk to you and your Facebook right right, rass.
- 11:21Speaker 1: The problem is not that you can you're doing it
- 11:23Speaker 1: in your apartment and now out and safety like Ross
- 11:26Speaker 1: is saying, the problem is that all of your neighbors
- 11:28Speaker 1: have to smell faith Cook being made twenty four seven
- 11:32Speaker 1: for three sixty five.
- 11:33Speaker 3: They are more than welcome to become customers.
- 11:35Speaker 1: Well, you know how fat we're going to get Facebook
- 11:38Speaker 1: every day?
- 11:39Speaker 9: I think maybe then the other question we should be
- 11:42Speaker 9: asking here is is she claiming back when she's submitting
- 11:47Speaker 9: her taxes or which if she's using her space as
- 11:50Speaker 9: an office space.
- 11:51Speaker 3: Are we're now going to start charging people that are
- 11:53Speaker 3: homeschooling and say they're running schools at home.
- 11:55Speaker 1: Guys, guys, guys, what happens then?
- 11:57Speaker 2: If you have a brow with your friends every weekend,
- 12:00Speaker 2: does that make you a tavern?
- 12:01Speaker 1: I mean no, the landlord's being ridiculous.
- 12:04Speaker 7: Guys.
- 12:04Speaker 4: You can stop someone from working from home, and let's
- 12:07Speaker 4: of course the brilliant people.
- 12:09Speaker 1: But also I mean just be this under the tenant.
- 12:11Speaker 1: Take your meetings to Megan Bin you see.
- 12:14Speaker 3: Okay, so here we go the tavern guy, Are you
- 12:18Speaker 3: charging for the beers? Because once you start charging for
- 12:22Speaker 3: the alcohol consumed on your property, then we have to
- 12:24Speaker 3: talk around liquor license.
- 12:25Speaker 1: Well, have that This is the I mean, that's the
- 12:28Speaker 1: point of this, right. So if I say, like I said,
- 12:30Speaker 1: if you're working at home alone on your laptopy, that's fine.
- 12:34Speaker 3: As soon as you know.
- 12:36Speaker 1: But if two or more are gathered.
- 12:39Speaker 3: Under your name, under your name, oh oh, we lost you.
- 12:44Speaker 3: Let's go to Mark, Mark and santin good morning.
- 12:46Speaker 2: Morning God. Okay, I'm a real estate agent and I
- 12:49Speaker 2: think it all boils down to disclosure. When you're signing
- 12:53Speaker 2: the lease or when your job specification changes, you need
- 12:58Speaker 2: to disclose that to obviously you're managing real estate agent,
- 13:02Speaker 2: and then they need to inform the owner of the property.
- 13:07Speaker 1: So what do you say. You have to write an
- 13:08Speaker 1: email to say, Hi, I'll now be workingday.
- 13:10Speaker 2: Listen, my job speck has changed. My company wants me
- 13:13Speaker 2: to work from home. This is what I will be doing.
- 13:16Speaker 2: This is how it will be done. It's more about that.
- 13:19Speaker 2: The other thing that you also have to keep in
- 13:20Speaker 2: mind is if you do work from home, size does
- 13:23Speaker 2: allow you to claim a home office. She's not really
- 13:26Speaker 2: breaking the rules.
- 13:27Speaker 1: No, I think it's But here's the thing, Mark, if
- 13:29Speaker 1: they allow you to claim a home office, can the
- 13:32Speaker 1: landlord then ask for more because you're claiming for a
- 13:35Speaker 1: land for a home office. No.
- 13:37Speaker 2: So this discussion all becomes time at the signing of
- 13:40Speaker 2: the lease. So when the lease is signed and you're
- 13:43Speaker 2: saying there is a possibility. That's what I'm saying. You've
- 13:45Speaker 2: got to disclose it upfront, or if your circumstances change
- 13:49Speaker 2: and your company says, okay, guys, we're going into another
- 13:53Speaker 2: COVID scenario. We've got this new virus up. We're going
- 13:56Speaker 2: to work from home. It's a matter of disclosure. So
- 14:00Speaker 2: you're send him an email advising of that, and he
- 14:02Speaker 2: can't just willingly and his thick, Oh, I'm increasing the
- 14:06Speaker 2: rent now because you're running a business. Can't do that.
- 14:09Speaker 1: I want to ask something though, in your because you're
- 14:12Speaker 1: real estate agent, right, so you do this all the time.
- 14:14Speaker 1: This is the this is your this is your jam.
- 14:15Speaker 1: Right in your contracts, is there a clause that says
- 14:20Speaker 1: this is residential you can't work from you.
- 14:24Speaker 2: There is a part in the in the contract that
- 14:26Speaker 2: does this is a residential pumercile.
- 14:29Speaker 1: Yes it does, Yes.
- 14:31Speaker 2: It does, saying all the disclosures and that is so
- 14:35Speaker 2: important to do. And to have someone that knows how
- 14:38Speaker 2: to do the paperwork is also very very important. The
- 14:41Speaker 2: other thing, word of math, A telephone call does not
- 14:45Speaker 2: cut it. You have to have every single thing in writing.
- 14:49Speaker 2: Oh I spoke to them and they said, they're cool
- 14:51Speaker 2: that that means nothing in court. You need to write everything.
- 14:55Speaker 1: You're going to end up in court.
- 14:57Speaker 2: We've had clients, We've had clients that have taken have
- 15:00Speaker 2: taken landlords to quote and boxer versa. Have the stuff
- 15:02Speaker 2: that get into a massive art.
- 15:05Speaker 3: Okay, So after I take you to courte and um landlord,
- 15:07Speaker 3: can I still stay there.
- 15:11Speaker 2: That the podcast?
- 15:14Speaker 3: I think things would get a little awkward between us.
- 15:16Speaker 3: Thank you, Mark she ate you're wrapping up it up
- 15:19Speaker 3: for us. You say you're on the body corporate.
- 15:23Speaker 10: Yes, yes, I am, actually, and it all comes down
- 15:27Speaker 10: to two things. One what are the rules allow of
- 15:32Speaker 10: the body corporate? And two what is like the gentleman
- 15:36Speaker 10: just said what stated in the contract. There's a there's
- 15:41Speaker 10: a certain wiggle room that's also given. But at the
- 15:46Speaker 10: end of the day, it also comes down.
- 15:48Speaker 11: To watch on paper. So with us, we've had instances
- 15:54Speaker 11: where people.
- 15:55Speaker 10: Ah ran not rein a business, but ran business from home.
- 16:01Speaker 11: But there was no uh in and out of people
- 16:05Speaker 11: coming into the complex. There was no concern for any
- 16:08Speaker 11: safety or security. So that kind of it was okay.
- 16:14Speaker 10: But there was also an instance where people were selling
- 16:19Speaker 10: fake cooks and desgents and things like that. And this
- 16:25Speaker 10: was back in COVID times where people were selling dishwasher
- 16:29Speaker 10: and cigaretteits and everything.
- 16:31Speaker 11: So we had a big, a big.
- 16:34Speaker 10: Increase in food traffic in and out of a complex
- 16:39Speaker 10: and something completely different.
- 16:41Speaker 1: She just say it's a fat cook saying that's an
- 16:44Speaker 1: eleanor fat cooks.
- 16:45Speaker 10: I'm telling you that I wasn't gape down at the time.
- 16:50Speaker 10: I wasn't kept down at the time, so it wasn't that.
- 16:53Speaker 1: Yeah, so you didn't pick up white because you didn't
- 16:55Speaker 1: smell the fat cooks being cooked all day long.
- 16:58Speaker 10: No, no, so my South, I actually bry So I
- 17:05Speaker 10: do take orders for.
- 17:06Speaker 1: Like already you're running a dark kitchen looking a dark
- 17:09Speaker 1: kitchen or eats from the complex as.
- 17:15Speaker 10: Okay, I.
- 17:21Speaker 3: Have my attention. What are you selling?
- 17:24Speaker 10: So I do take the occasional order for like smoked ropes,
- 17:29Speaker 10: stage and things like that.
- 17:31Speaker 1: Which area are you intu it? And how do we
- 17:33Speaker 1: place orders?
- 17:33Speaker 11: You can find me in Robin Dough.
- 17:35Speaker 2: You have my number.
- 17:39Speaker 1: This is a word of mouth. This is the word
- 17:41Speaker 1: of mouth.
- 17:42Speaker 10: But I prepare the stuff at home and I delivered
- 17:46Speaker 10: it two wave. It needs to go you see. So
- 17:49Speaker 10: again there's no traffic, there's no there's no safety or anything,
- 17:55Speaker 10: no age compromise.
- 17:56Speaker 3: A do you sleep on an Empire? If you want
- 17:59Speaker 3: the fit book, Lady.
- 18:00Speaker 1: Partner, Imagine, Imagine, smoked, rubble inside, unstoppable.
- 18:10Speaker 3: It's back to making your morning in La and the Club.
- 18:14Speaker 1: I Love the s on nine four seven