Posted By Steve Buxton My wife works as a Distance Learning Tutor, based at home and occasionally going out to visit students. At no stage do students come to visit her, so the question of H & S, liability etc by using a bedroom at home as an office has never reared its head. However, the College she works for is about to have an Ofsted inspection, and the inspectors may want to visit her in her "working" environment to see her paperwork systems etc. Could this cause any problems with our house being redesignated as a place of work, rather than just using a bedroom to do some paperwork ? Could it cause problems with the house insurance ? Any advice welcome.

Posted By David P. Johnson If she is working from a specific area of the home, and it is not used for any other purpose (such as a study used only for work, rather than sticking a desk in the dining room you use almost daily), that area needs to carry business insurance and pay business rates, strictly speaking. However, the likelihood of Ofsted liaising with HMRC or asking to see insurance documents is very low in practice, I have never seen it happen before. DJ