Prospective and existing childminders are being prevented from setting up or continuing to run their businesses from home because of restrictions in their property title deeds.
The Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) says it is increasingly hearing reports of childminders unable to start a business, and existing childminders who move home and are unable to continue to work, because of a covenant preventing owners from trading or operating a business on the land their property is built on.
PACEY believes this could be contributing to the decline in the number of new childminders in recent years.
One childminder in Gloucestershire was recently told she must stop working due to a restrictive covenant on the deeds of the house she purchased five years ago and in which she has been childminding ever since. This followed a dispute with a neighbour in which the restrictive covenant was raised.
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