Harrogate Borough Council

 
 

Smokefree: Working from Home, Working in Homes

The smokefree requirements are intended to achieve a balance between allowing people to smoke in their own residential space and protecting others from exposure to secondhand smoke.
 

A Home is technically a Private Dwelling (which also includes self-contained residential accommodation for temporary or holiday use, and any garage, outhouse or other structure for the exclusive use of persons living in the dwelling). Smokefree does not generally apply, except to:

  • Common areas in a block of flats or house in multi-occupation eg, common entrance lobbies, stairwells, lifts, corridors, plus any facilities/ areas shared by the occupants of more than one house.
  • Parts of a home used solely as a PLACE OF WORK by:
    • More than one person who does not live at the dwelling
    • A person living at the dwelling and one who does not live there

Where members of the public enter the place of work 

For example:

  1. If you worked alone from home, and clients or members of the public are not admitted, the Smokefree regulations do not apply.
  2. If the public enter part of your home as part of your business (eg, hairdressing) that part must be Smokefree
  3. If you work from home with another person who does not live there, the working part of the home must be Smokefree

A home need not be Smokefree if the work involves

  • Provision of personal care for the person living in the home
  • Assistance with domestic work of the household in the home
  • Maintaining the structure or fabric of the home
  • Installing, maintaining or removing any service provided to the home for the benefit of the person living in it
Harrogate Borough Council, Council Offices, Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 2SG, Tel: (01423) 500600