Do I need to tell my landlord if I want to teach music lessons out of my rental home?

Question

My roommate and I are looking for a nice, clean, quiet place in a very tight and expensive market. She is a voice major and wants to teach small group music lessons for toddlers and small children during the day - maybe once or twice a week for a couple of hours a day. The kids are always accompanied by their parents and the activities don't involve food or paint or any messy or noisy activities.

We want to know if we are legally required to tell our future landlords about her plans or if it will be along the same lines as having friends over a few times a week.

We already had one landlord say "He doesn't want kids in his house" but we don't have kids living there or eating there or doing any of the messy kid things. We felt this was an unreasonable attitude. We can't see it being a problem but we are worried about being turned away from other places and not having anywhere to live next month.

If we didn't tell them, could they come back and say we deceived them? Would they have grounds to evict us? We want to be upfront but are scared they would jump to the wrong idea of what she would be doing and imagine it would be like a daycare which it is not like at all.

She has made plans to get liability insurance and all the other necessary arrangements.

Do we need to tell them?

Answer 1

You won't get a business license without the landlords permission.   It is also VERY probable that the house is not zoned for business.   If you have more then 2 visitors a day to a home business you need to be dual zoned, commercial/residential.

Answer 2

Yes, you absolutely have to, and let them know that you are getting liability insurance and a business license.

Most leases have a "residential only" clause in them, and if the landlord discovers that you are running a business you will be evicted. Music lessons are one ofthe exceptions to the "no business" zoning, but you need to tell the landlord, and have it in the lease.