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Reggio, I don't think that's true in my city. I called City Hall and as long as my business only takes up 25% of my rental space I'm legal. There is no other zoning bylaw regarding business/residential. My superintendant was worried that the landlord might get mad but I have been in business 4 years now without hearing anything from them so I don't think they mind because I'm careful about the hydro, water, etc.
However, it's a good point and worth checking with City Hall Bylaws in your city soph.
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I know whre I live only recently was the By-law removed to ALLOW home businesses. People still did it but if they were caught or had a nasty neighbour they'd get a hefty fine.
Weird I know!
The biggest argument was the fact of the economy and this was most peoples only option to bring in income as long as they did something LEGAL. So yay for me that it changed.
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Ya - if varies per region ... governments are stupid bureaucracies at times - some laws are determined by City counsel and other laws are determined by Provincial government and others by Federal and sometimes they contradict each other but one will 'outweigh' the other in jurisdiction - frustrating for business owners for sure!
So from Province to Province and from City to City ... and sometimes even within a CITY one area can be zoned one way and another 5 km away zoned differently ... so you know how some cities are divided North, South, East, West, Central for example or they name them 'neighborhoods' or whatever .... well in some cities the over all rule might be X so for example home business are permitted provided no more than X square footage is used however there can be an amendment that the Y & Z areas of the city might have stricter rules on zoning for home business because it is 'condensed' and already has parking and traffic issues therefore not permitted in that area without a special 'permit' cause the City Council wants to control how much traffic and parking is being drawn in by that business - so something like home childcare might be allowed because it is just am and pm traffic and only 5 clients where a 'home based salon' might get denied a permit because they could have 4 cars an hour coming in and out of the area ... hope that make sense.
Bottom line - I would never rely on what someone else told me because it can be so vastly different - I would call and get the information FIRST HAND from your city and I would document the NAME of the employee and the date you were given that information - because rules and bi-laws change and if you rely on word of mouth from others you could get incorrect information and find yourself in trouble because unfortunately 'ignorance of the law' is not a viable excuse when one gets caught breaking them :(
The reason I would get the name and date of the information is sadly because often the GOVERNMENT gives out wrong information to people as well cause employee was absent the day that memo went out and did not bother to 'read up' on things when they returned to work ... twice in the last year I have had to go head to head with CRA calling me about registering for a HST number and having to 'educate' them that childcare is exempt and both times the worker on the phone had to put me on hold to 'check' with a superior that I was correct the one superior tried to tell me I still had to because I made more than '$35,000 revenue' I had to actually tell her the URL to their own website to find the information that says NO the entire field is exempt regardless of revenue ... so ya sometimes YOU have to become the expert in the rules of your business to avoid getting taken advantage of a government employee who THINKS they are an expert but are not :roll:
Ideally with business if possible get them to mail you out the bi-laws or rules or provide you with a link to where to find them on the city website so you have a written record for your file if ever questioned - yes see right here is states I CAN do this!
