Q: Working from home with DBA when lease is residential only okay?
My home lease says it is only for residential purposes. I do freelance work from home and recently registered for a fictitious name (DBA) including placing an ad in the paper stating this that contains my home address. My wife thinks this violates/breaks our lease. Am I correct in thinking that operating a business from my dwelling and working from home are two different things? Does this really mean I'm not allowed to do freelance work if I live here? I would never have thought a lease could say you're not allowed to be self-employed.
A: In order to properly answer your questions, I would have to read your lease, know where you live and research the zoning, deed, HOA/COA and perhaps other restrictions on the use of your property. Registering for a DBA is not relevant to the applicable restrictions, if any, upon commercial use of residential property. Your lease may say that you cannot violate applicable laws, regulations or rules. There may be restrictions on the commercial use of your property. If so, you could be in violation of the restriction and lease. If there are not, then maybe not.
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A: You could rent a PO box to use as your business address. Ultimately I would not worry too much about doing freelance work out of your home unless you have a lot of people coming and going all the time or the business is causing some other type of disturbance.
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