The Home Use Form

What have you been using your home as, in the past?

It may sound straight forward, but many leases, ground rents, and clauses, can stop a home sale in its tracks.

Some homes are used as hotels, shops, cafe's and any number of bizarre uses, when you buy it as a residential property, you don't expect to be paying business taxes on it.

The property, if sold as a domestic property, should have no commercial ties, this may even be the case when you have been operating your business from home, if you have been claiming some use of the property as a tax break.

Any business related ties must be dealt with before the sale, discuss this with your solicitor or accountant.

There may also be agricultural ties attached to your home, these can be quite harmless, but all relevant information must be gathered together to asses any potential problems that could arise from the sale.

Non disclosure is not an option.

Many sales become complicated by the previous use of the building. There could be planning implications, public, right of way, common land borders, public house use, is it the law that says if you operate a public house, then you cannot refuse a member of the public the use of your toilet?

Most cases will be straight forward, residential use only, that is the one that the buyer wants to see. Sometimes the other usage of your home can be an asset and therefore a great selling point.

When the home use form states that your five bedroomed farmhouse also serves to accommodate cattle, then watch out!