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Comment by dspillett | Hacker News Reader

You need to be careful with using residential property for commercial purposes in most places. Repurposing a property, even though it would require no external changes and no structural internal changes, often requires planning permission and/or a correct license to operate a business. There are exceptions for sole traders, but they'd not count in this case.

Caveat: I'm in the UK. Things may be different the other side of the pond (and may vary by state).

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Somehow, I don't like the idea of the government telling me how I may use a property I pay good money for, especially if there are no changes and it's just me with a laptop.

Too many laws in too many places. [I know I won't consider the UK now :->]

EDIT: I have heard about this zoning concept, it's just a bad idea IMHO, especially when applied to the modern tech workers. In France, unless you run specific equipment (say heavy machinery) which can create nuisance or risk for the neighbours, or if receive the public (wear and tear being a nuisance in itself), you're quite free. Zoning as in simcity (residential/industry/commercial) is a dated concept. I want to leave near the place I work and where I can find commerces.

In France, there are even special corporate statuses for single entrepreneurs, which especially allow you to do that in case your landlord may tick, and even deduct part of your home expanses as business expanses (say if you are using a room of your 4 bedroom flat, 15% would be reasonable because you'll still use the bathroom and the kitchen more for yourself that for your company, the % amount is left to the appreciation of the tax agents)

That's one of the rare business friendly laws, even if I must say I've been quite surprised by the recent Hollande plan, which for the first time seems to talk sense about business and employment.

The way you use a property affects all properties around it - that's why zoning exists.

Hardly true for any form of knowledge worker. A guy sitting at a desk for twelve hours is unlikely to create nuisance for neighbours

This example was 6 people in one person's residence.

No one complains if you don't cause problems. If you create a nuisance, people complain, and then you get fined/evicted based on the cause of the nuisance, the zoning violation.

6 people in an apartment sized for 4 may be a nuisance.

"Commercial" activity generally refers to customer traffic, not personal work.

In my experience, the thing most likely to cause a problem is going to be the building's management - whether its an apartment, condo, or co-op. With a 2 or 3 low profile people you'll be ok, but good luck trying to get away with actual employees coming in and out all day.

I'm sure things vary by state, but I think if you're careful, it's something you can easily get away with.

As long as you don't need to have frequent visitors, aren't making tons of noise, and generally make it look like your apartment isn't a makeshift office, I'd probably be more worried about my landlord finding out than the zoning commission.

Is commercial office space substantially more expensive than residential? I could see using a space you're living in as an office, but if the original tenant moved out because the office was infringing on his space/life, is it cheaper to maintain the residential apartment as an office or find proper office space?

id software used an apartment at one point and was started in a lake house. I think it helped that a lot of the staff actually lived there.

http://romero.smugmug.com/Video-Games/The-Archives/480_GtbLP...

The rag-tag office setup is pretty inspiring.

Yup, this was happening in Kendall Sq in Cambridge for awhile until the city quietly asked everyone to move - http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2012/04/2_...

2 bd w/ living room apartments were cheaper than office space across the street.

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