City prohibits running business from home garage

I had one neighbor that called the town ship on me constantly when I was in MI. Same laws there. They would send the same guy out to talk to me every month or so. It was kind of comical. He would ask if I was accepting money for my work and I would say no these are my friends cars. Then his wife would drop his car off for me to detail. He was a great tipper. It's really just what they can prove and since the rest of the neighborhood loved having me there coupled with the fact that I'm more of a Libertarian I didn't feel one bit bad about it. AMERUCA
 
slimnib said:
If I wanted to have a business next door to me I would have purchase a home next door to a business and paid a lot less for my house. Try selling your home with some guy running a business in the street next door to you. Not easy and it reduces the value of your home,

I moved out of the city to live a suburban life if I wanted a business next door to me I would have stayed in the city.

If you want to start your own business man up and rent space in commercial area. Do not annoy your neighbors.

Also, you will never know how turns you in.
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That is a bit extreme isnt it? How much noise do we really make? IF you have a good garage in your house (where mine is just a metal building with no insulation) and your neighbor is sitting in his den watching the TV, how likely is he to hear your shop vac? or DA? The other option is to ask him if he has been bothered by what your doing IE " Hey man,, Im going to be running some power tools, how about letting me know if its too loud in your house? I dont want to wake the baby or disturb anyone." Its all communication and courtesy. A few polite words can go a long way.
 
I do a lot of work out of my garage at home and never a problem. However, I have talked to all my close neighbours about it and offered up my service to them if they ever need it.
I do not make excess noise (I make an effort to insure that I am not running anything loud early in the morning or late at night) and I do not block up the streets with cars.

If you speak with your neighbours and talk to them about it and let them know what's up, even offer you services to them it could work.
 
beamerstrumpet said:
That is a bit extreme isnt it? How much noise do we really make? IF you have a good garage in your house (where mine is just a metal building with no insulation) and your neighbor is sitting in his den watching the TV, how likely is he to hear your shop vac? or DA? The other option is to ask him if he has been bothered by what your doing IE " Hey man,, Im going to be running some power tools, how about letting me know if its too loud in your house? I dont want to wake the baby or disturb anyone." Its all communication and courtesy. A few polite words can go a long way.
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I agree. It's different when it's an actual business represented as so. But detailing as a side job/weekend warrior type work makes no more noise than lawn care, wood working, and multiple other hobbies that people do in their garages. Shoot I have two neighbors building cars in their garages.

If anything I'd love to move next door to someone who I thought was washing their car, all it appears as is someone who is meticulous. I highly doubt anyone will see someone washing a car and automatically jump to nope not moving there.
 
+1 whiny babies, i'll do what I want in my garage.. I can cause more trouble for a whiny baby than they can on me... get a life.
 
beamerstrumpet said:
" Hey man,, Im going to be running some power tools, how about letting me know if its too loud in your house? I dont want to wake the baby or disturb anyone."
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Then what do you do when the neighbor says it's too loud? Stop business? Polish by hand? Loose $?
 
beamerstrumpet said:
must be a hell of a HOA! I will never live in a HOA ill do what I want on my property.
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Fast Eddie said:
My hard earned money will never be wasted on a HOA, its just simply code enforcement in a town where the median house prices are ridiculous and everyone wants to protect their property values. Your free to have all the hobbies you want here, as long as they don't break code/rules. I used to live in a much bigger city where you could park your car on the front lawn, leave the trash cans out for a week, and Christmas lights all year round :xyxthumbs:, they could care less about any car detail operation being run out of a garage.
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Oh God don't get me started on HOA's... er yard Nazis! Old friend from the HS/college years got himself elected to his HOA a few years back as VP, the pulled a coup and got elected as Pres. Called me one day and asked me to take a look at the neighborhood website, they had something akin to a forum and HE/THEY didn't want the neighbors having a place to go where they could go to TALK TO EACH OTHER! He actually told me that THEY (the HOA) would tell "them" what they needed to know and "they" (the neighbors) didn't need to be talking to one another! I snit you not!!!! :eek:

I told him that they were well within their rights to talk to one another, plus of course it GIVES them that sense of "community" that they (the HOA) seemed to want so bad.
Then I said that I'd read their "rules" and honestly I needed to warn him that he was looking at a law suit if it didn't reword certain sections. Those were specifically the ones that said they prohibited ANY satellite dish being visible from the street, or ANY TV antenna. You see.... the thing is.... when we went to broadcast High Definition Television that my friends is a DIGITAL signal, and the Federal Government wrote laws that said that ALL citizens of this country can have a dish (up to 1 meter) and/or an antenna mounted on their residence to receive both a digital satellite as well as the HDTV signal from your local broadcasters and that NO city, county, municipality, HOA or otherwise could prevent it. Yeah there are a couple of situations where if it's a historic area, or apartments (that you don't own) etc. where you have to figure something out, be that put it inside and aim it out a window or have it hidden from the street but by and large NOBODY can tell you that you can't put up an antenna or satellite dish to receive digital programming. :)


Property values YES... I understand those. But you can have covenants (most counties and especially cities require them from the developer) in you subdivision that are just as enforceable as anything else. Things like no chain link fences, (we have that here but no HOA) and our subdivision is all custom, all brick, 1~2 acres (except for a few lots back where we are that are 4, 5, 20....). Doesn't mean we need yard Nazis to keep us all in lock step though!
 
miad said:
so much of this, matter of fact, all of this, depends on where you live. cannot compare my town to yours, it doesn't make sense. of course, being good friends with the "mayor" of your town and the police chief doesn't hurt.
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Just as you can't say you need to have someone else get your Tax ID for you.

The "legal business name" that you fill in the blank with when going to the IRS site can be AAAAAAABBBBCCC company or Yabba Dabba Doo for all that matters. Bottom line is it'll be tied to either a corporation/LLC or a Social Security number. If it's the latter, there is no reason to pay anyone to do your filings for you.

I started my first business almost 30 years ago, trust me, been there, done that. Didn't need to pay someone to do that part. The taxes though.... oh boy are those a pain. Always did my own, did my books, printed out my reports, printed the tax returns, THEN took them to my CPA for her to sign off on them (put her name on them) if for no other reason then to keep from getting audited. Must have worked too..... :D (OTOH she tried to hire me for about 10 years to work with her at Tax Time!) :rolleyes:

Now to separate your business from your personal finances is just plain old good sense, couldn't agree more.:xyxthumbs: We (unfortunately) live in a litigious society so filing a LLC may make sense for some people. OTOH, it's not hard to have everything you own in your wife's name and the business in yours, or the other way around. Somebody want to take you to court and you don't own anything, then nothing to be gained on their end. Having an LLC will not stop somebody from filing a law suit, or taking everything the business owns, whether that be LLC or sole proprietorship. That... is what good liability insurance is for! :props:
 
beamerstrumpet said:
That is a bit extreme isnt it? How much noise do we really make? IF you have a good garage in your house (where mine is just a metal building with no insulation) and your neighbor is sitting in his den watching the TV, how likely is he to hear your shop vac? or DA? The other option is to ask him if he has been bothered by what your doing IE " Hey man,, Im going to be running some power tools, how about letting me know if its too loud in your house? I dont want to wake the baby or disturb anyone." Its all communication and courtesy. A few polite words can go a long way.
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+1 Good grief :rolleyes:
 
Great input here from you all...many thanks for all your time and ideas. For all those that were concerned, I assure you if I were your neighbor, you wouldn't even know I was running a business. I understand the risks, but I think those rules were made to prevent abuse, and I wouldn't want to disturb my neighbors anymore than I'd want them to disturb me. I think these rules should be made...if not, some will abuse it and have customers cars parked all the way down the street. The few always seem to ruin it for the many. My neighbors bratty kids make more noise outside than my polisher and vacuum ever will. I think with some empathy towards my neighbors, and some good 'ol fashioned common sense, I should be fine.
 
Mad Wax said:
Great input here from you all...many thanks for all your time and ideas. For all those that were concerned, I assure you if I were your neighbor, you wouldn't even know I was running a business. I understand the risks, but I think those rules were made to prevent abuse, and I wouldn't want to disturb my neighbors anymore than I'd want them to disturb me. I think these rules should be made...if not, some will abuse it and have customers cars parked all the way down the street. The few always seem to ruin it for the many. My neighbors bratty kids make more noise outside than my polisher and vacuum ever will. I think with some empathy towards my neighbors, and some good 'ol fashioned common sense, I should be fine.
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The vast majority of people will not care you're running a business from your home. There are always a few who HAVE to complain and be negative about everything, and that's typically who will be bothering you (if they even do). I think you'll be fine if you go about it without getting your property re-zoned but I have gotten a lot of business from having a sign my yard.
 
I run my full time detailing business out of my garage for 3 years. I had the city and HOA sign off on it. Even had my neighbors sign off on it and with that said I sound proof my garage so they can't hear anything while the equipment is running. I'm very lucky my neighborhood has a live work program so people can work out of their homes. The only time my neighbors see anything is while I'm washing the car and when I'm done with it. I only do one car a day so there's not a bunch of cars parked everywhere. The problem with having an HOA and not having it approved then can fine you a lot of money and the city can too. If something goes wrong on a customers cars you have no insurance or a legit business your opening your self up to lose everything if someone sues you.
 
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