30-40 Margaret Ave | 3 fl townhouses | Planned

[ijmorlan]

Historically, almost any activity conducted out of ones home should not count as “commercial”. The key is that the person conducting or in charge of the activity must live there. The only valid change for modern conditions is that if the activity is hazardous or (legitimately) vexatious to neighbours, then modern safety and quality-of-life considerations may intervene and rule it out.

These kinds of provisions are typically laid out in a condo corporation's declaration document, which is written by the developer's legal team and very difficult for the subsequent owners to modify (need 80% of all units to approve). So my comment is in the context of a restriction in the declaration rather than what "should" be allowed or not. And in that context, I expect that working (alone) at home would be fine, but a retail business, with customers coming and going, would likely be not. Just my interpretation, though, I only play lawyer in my spare time!

I was actually talking about zoning rules rather than condominium declarations. I’m not sure what I think of this sort of rule in a condo declaration. On the one hand, theoretically they are determined by a private property owner initially, and then agreed to by subsequent purchasers of units. On the other hand, in the US HOAs have clearly run rampant, where in many areas it is almost impossible to find a place to live that doesn’t have all sorts of detailed and unreasonable rules concerning how one must manage ones property.

Some of the same considerations still apply, however. For example, I would consider a ban on music instruction inappropriate, given that its impact on neighbours is indistinguishable from somebody who just regularly takes visitors. And obviously it’s simply nobody’s business at all if somebody remotes in to their office from home, no matter what the rules say. What next, it’s against the declaration to log in to online banking from home?

Also not a lawyer, just my musings.