Can the council stop me working for someone in their home office?

[secretskillrelationships]

Member of the council turned up today to check reports that someone was working from the home office I work in i.e. me. They will be writing to my employer.

Huge back story to do with planning issues around the home office, which the council lost on appeal. The appeal completely supported my boss and her application. During that process, I remember a surveyor saying that she was allowed to employ a secretary to help with admin. I mentioned this briefly to the planning man and he said 'show me the case law'. And something about expectations of use i.e. you wouldn't expect a home office to have an employee working from it.

Poor boss has had 10 months of dealing with this hassle and we had literally just had the appeal through (still waiting for decision on costs). She is currently on holiday.

Can anyone help?

Have found that under C3 planning:

C3 Dwellinghouses - this class is formed of 3 parts:
C3(a) covers use by a single person or a family (a couple whether married or not, a person related to one another with members of the family of one of the couple to be treated as members of the family of the other), an employer and certain domestic employees (such as an au pair, nanny, nurse, governess, servant, chauffeur, gardener, secretary and personal assistant), a carer and the person receiving the care and a foster parent and foster child.

I am effectively my boss' PA, though that's not my job title, but for her business. Does that count?

Have posted in employment but maybe legal would be better?

Well, this isn't an employment law issue, so yes legal would be better. If they will be writing to your employer she will probably want to seek advice based on what they say. If they think you shouldn't be working there they will probably give her the legal reason why not and will outline what action they propose to take.

Having said that, as a non-lawyer with no knowledge of planning law, it sounds like that use relates to domestic employees not employees or/for a business.

For example, I have my own consultancy business and until recently, also employed a nanny in a domestic capacity as an individual. I would say the nanny would qualify under that list but not anyone employed by the business for the business.

But I have no knowledge whatsoever, so that's just a layman's interpretation.

Thanks for your response. I'll ask for thread to be moved to legal. I guess I might be back here though if it puts my job at risk!