Refusal to Supply - European Directive question

[Chuckie]

Hiya bit of the subject this but this forum knows lots of information. Does anyone here run a business from home doesnt have "trade / business premises" or pay biz rates ?

Some of our suppliers say were not going to supply you because of this, some one was telling me that there is a european directive that states this can't be done now. does anyone know if this is true or not ? or where i can find this information out ?

thanks
James

[magicalwonders]

Sounds a bit odd this one given that millions of us work from home!

There may be restrictions in place concerning the type of trade enagaged in though. Such as manufacturing explosives etc., Can't imagine a home munitions factory would fly. But for most businesses there are no legal restrictions on where you set up shop.

Check out the DTI website and send them an email for confirmation.

Myles

[compendia]

I can imagine that a wholesaler, who is only allowed to sell to trade customers, would have difficulty if you can't prove you're a business, though I don't see that the premises would be an issue if you had a business account or VAT number or something. Do you have an accountant as your registered office, that could be your business address and you could specify a different delivery address.

You could also try the inland revenue and see what the rules are about working from home. There's a helpline for the newly self employed, I would tell them you're thinking about starting the business rather than have set it up.

[chris ashdown]

Just a wild guess but would that supplier be for Nikad batteries, as I think there are specific rules for storeing and transporting them.

I know that a couple of years ago the airlines would not carry them as freight as they react with water to become highly inflamable, but would allow hand held computers which also have them

On ships we had to store them in a metal waterproof locker.

[Chuckie]

Hiya thanks for the responses, i have sent DTI an email asking them also, chris, its not to do with transportation of the stock because we dont have any problems in that area, thats the easy bit to tell you the truth. But these suppliers there main reason for not supplying is because we dont have trade premisis or pay biz rates. If we had a shop then we could get an account tommorow. i will let you know what the dti say.

[chris ashdown]

Sorry not clear in my previous not transportation but storage

How do they find out if you are in business premises or not, I work from home and nobody has ever asked about the address or if I pay rates, It might just be a credit rating that shows up that address as a residential unit and gives you a low score