A question for those who hold courses/workshops from home ....

[Abbaye]

Hello all,

I have a question to those of you who hold courses from your properties - whatever the subject of the course is irrelevant.  My question is does the building/buildings in which you hold the courses have to comply to any particular regulations (ie. health & safety, building regs etc)?  Where would I be able to find this out. 

Do any of you hold courses from, say, old outbuildings?  We are considering holding weekend workshops from home and the building we would use has a fibrous cement corrugated roof (could be asbestos) - would we be able to use this building to accept paying members of the public onto our property for courses or do we need to get this replaced or could we perhaps insulate it with one of those enveloping spray systems (Renotherm or similar?).

If anyone has an experience similar to this issue I would really appreciate some advice.

Many thanks.

Slacko

 

[Val_2]

I would start with the mairie first as you may need permission to do this project. They will tell you if you need to get the fire officer down for an inspection as you may be required to have emergency exits with fire doors and illuminated signs and of course insurance too. Public safety is treated very seriously here in France and after all the deaths in the past year or so at raves and concerts (I know your venue is tiny in comparison but lives could still be put at risk in case of a fire etc). They may also help you to publicise your venture locally too.

[Abbaye]

Thanks - yes good idea - the fire officer I would imagine would know all about the fibrous cement roof which is causing us worry, hopefully undue worry.  I need to pop up to the Mairies anyway so will flag this with him - we have not started to prepare the outbuillding yet for this venture - we are hoping to gather as much information as poss before we start anything so we dont do something that we need to undo!

Thanks again and have a nice evening.

[Chris Head]

I'm considering a similar idea Abbaye, but only once or twice a year for a few days at a time, my worry is personal injury and accident and my liability to anyone who might be under my wing, my instinct is that the addititonal insurance costs would render these few days a year not really worth doing, I haven't had the time to research it yet.

Chris

[Nick Trollope]

And don't assume that you will be allowed to run any commercial operation from domestic premises, it frequently is not allowed (excusing my grammar). Ask your local DDE.