Mary Kay, Tupperware - are these "working out of home"

I was talking with a neighbor last night that was talking about becoming a consultant and selling Tupperware to earn some extra money to pay off some bills and just have some extra spending money.

Because most CC&R's state that the homes are for residential use only, would these types of "businesses" be legal? From the little I know about these types of ventures, the "consultants" are not employed by the companies, and they are not selling fro the homes, but having parties and in most cases the products are direct shipped to that persons house

The homeowner is a little concerned and wants to talk to the management company and board, but like a lot of residents out here, she is scared of asking about it as they tend to make people who ask "targets" in the future.

My hands are tied on what to tell her and can only refer her to the laws we have in place and suggest she ask an attorney

Suggestions? Ideas?

Most of the time Mary Kay or Tupperware parties are held in other "hostesses" home. If she holds an occassional party in her home, no one could say anything. However if it were 5 nights a week with deliveries, people coming into the community, then the board could say something. Like Roger said, if you can't hear it, see it, or smell it no one is being bothered by it.

Roger - are you saying that HOAs can monitor the number of UPS or USPS package deliveries to a home? How would they know what is in those packages? I get very frequent deliveries from both of the above plus Fed Express because I buy as much as I can off the web and from EBay. It is frequently cheaper, saves gas, and no sales tax. So now I can be suspected of conducting a business from my home because of frequent deliveries? Harold

Our governing documents say our dwellings are residental use too. However, in a separate section it talks about owning a business and restrictions around signage, can't be a clinic etc. Another HOA I lived in said a business had to be approved by AC.

I'm a little surprised that MC sponsors recommend a don't ask, don't tell policy. These 'consultants' are 1099s to the company they represent and are working from their home. People may complain if there is a sudden increase of deliveries to the house.

Having considered this type of work before (as well as being a licensed real estate agent), the first thing that I [did] would do is to pass out fliers to all of my neighbors letting them know that my resources are available to them. I would also host parties from my house.

Verify (or have your neighbor do it) the governing documents. Your state might also have something to say about the matter.

Tracy

Hi Krystal:

If there is no discernable difference in the home due to the business, then there should be no problem. If they start having a sales party every week, lots of deliveries, etc. then there would be a problem. The best thing to do is to check the documents. If it says that the BOD can approve a business and she might have some of those activities, then it may be very worthwhile for her to talk to the BOD and get written permission to run the business out of her home.

There are many people who "telecommute," do such things as insurance coding as an independent contractor, etc. from home; no discernable difference in traffic, etc. - therefore, no problem. Many documents also allow an owner to entertain clients at home (more intended as a professional entertaining clients than a tupperware party).

JPM

Tracy:

We are not stating don't tell, if a business operates quietly in a home, like a web master working from his/her computer, how can an HOA stop someone from working from their computer? The if you can't hear it, smell it or see it falls under the nusaince clause in CCR's.

A Owner running a auto repair shop would cause noise, disrupt the quiet enjoyment of the surrounding neighbors. An Owner operating a day-care with 60 children (let's say) would distrupt the qyiet enjoyment of Owners in the surrounding area. These 2 examples are the meaning of hear, see or smell quote. By no means did I and I believe Roger mean "don't tell".

No use tax in SC either unless you voluntarily pay it or get caught. ;)

My advice for whatever it is worth (i'll take a penny today) is this...If you are going to invest money into your business and are planning on running it from home and it will cause noise or traffic of any significance I would ask permission first. For example, if you were going to invest in a fence and playground equipment and start-up costs for a daycare in your home, only to find out that 10+ screaming kids and 10 vehicles every morning and night caused a nuisance to your neighborhood and you were shut down, you have now wasted a lot of money.

The old saying it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission doesn't really apply in an HOA. Now...if you are a webmaster and am building sites and maintaining them for people I think we all know that is not a noisy adventure and wouldn't cause much in the line of traffic.

RonaldW - With all due respect, I do believe that you can enforce this using a little common sense. Obviously, we don't care if there is a home business unless the resident is operating outside our County Zoning requirements and the resident's business frequeently attract large number of vehicles or visitors within the community. By Resolution our attorney wrote our design guidelines which have been in effect for years and they work fine. IE - the following language can focus on the types of businesses that you might wish to prohibit.

In-home Businesses. XXXXX County regulates in-home businesses; permits must be obtained. However, customer-intensive businesses, which frequently attract large numbers of vehicles to the resident’s neighborhood, are not allowed. The following special requirements must be met:
* A copy of the County permit must be filed with the Association’s property manager;
* No sign or other advertising device of any nature shall be placed upon any lot or common area;
* No exterior storage of business-related materials is allowed; and,
* Visitor parking spaces cannot be used for parking business vehicles. Vehicles parked in violation will be towed at owner’s risk and expense.

Obviously, we're not concerned about Tupperware parties, but here I'm just advocating as in my previous post, that some businesses should not be permitted. Why should the resident use common area parking areas for their visitor clients? What's next? A Dentist, A Podiatrist, barber, beauty saloon in a small non-garage townhome? Yes, I realize that some areas allow these in Single Family homes that are not in a Planned Unit Developement with an HOA, but it's very clear in most municipalities that these types of businesses are not permitted within the zoning laws and that's all that we're basically concerned about.

Mike, you're saying the same thing several of us already said. If it's not noticable as a business, we're not going to try to prevent it (because we don't need to and we can't anyway).

Many of our association documents were written several years ago when home offices and such were uncommon. They are poorly worded in this respect. Your suggestion to use local business licensing requirements as a tool for identifying and regulating business use is a good one.