Question about buying a company home? Get free advice!

Questioner

Dear Rechtswinkel, I would like to buy a commercial property with an associated company home. I am employed full-time and do not have my own company. My goal is to buy the company home purely for residential purposes without any form of business management (the idea is that the company building is included in the purchase of the company home). The plot does not have a zoning plan for residential purposes, only for agricultural wood processing. There could be 2 options: 1 set up my own company or 2 apply for a zoning plan change. With regard to option 1, according to the municipality the only reason to be able to live there is described as follows: "A company home is a home in or near a company or institution intended for (the household of) a person whose housing there must be deemed necessary in view of the intended use." Suppose I start a sole proprietorship by only registering with the Chamber of Commerce, is that sufficient to be allowed to live there or do I have to obtain a number of company-related assignments or another variant? The disadvantage of option 1 would be that I would pay transfer tax of 6% instead of 2% on the purchase value. For option 2, the municipality indicates that they are willing to consider changing the zoning plan to purely residential purposes under a number of conditions, but then the business premises must be completely demolished. I wonder whether this may be required in this way? In addition, this application would certainly take six months and entail high costs, such as 10,000 to 25,000 euros. I understand that a crumbs law has been in place since 2010 for business premises and offices and perhaps this may also apply here? (in this case it should take a maximum of 8 weeks and at much lower costs). And finally, suppose the municipality has now converted the zoning plan to residential purposes, can the municipality later convert that zoning plan again to, for example, a nature reserve without residential purposes? Thanks in advance for a response.

Lawyer

I understand that you do not actually intend to use the (business) building yourself in accordance with the destination 'agricultural wood processing'. Any deviating use is in conflict with the zoning plan, so you must take into account that the municipality can/must take action against it. The municipality is not obliged to adjust the zoning plan at your request or, if possible, to allow the deviating use through an environmental permit. The 'crumb scheme' that you refer to does indeed in many cases provide the municipality with the authority to grant environmental permits for construction and use in conflict with the zoning plan via a relatively light procedure, but here too it is a matter of the municipality's authority and not an obligation to cooperate.

Questioner

Thank you for your response, perhaps my question was incomplete: if I set up a sole proprietorship, e.g. wood processing/furniture making, and register with the Chamber of Commerce, is that sufficient to be allowed to live in the home because I have a company? (there is a tree nursery on the property where I could make furniture to order). It is also unclear to me when the municipality adjusted the zoning plan as stated in option 2. Can the municipality adjust the zoning plan again at any time and thus remove the residential designation? Kind regards,

Lawyer

It is about the actual use that must fit within the usage provisions of the zoning plan. A single KvK registration seems very meager to me. Furthermore, you must also take into account the necessity requirement: ''A company home is a home in or near a company or institution intended for (the household of) a person whose housing there must be deemed necessary in view of the intended use.'' Very limited, but appropriate business operations will generally not be able to justify a company home. If an existing destination is removed/changed when a zoning plan is amended, this can lead to compensation for planning damage and sometimes also to expropriation compensation, if the realisation of the new destination is incompatible with the continuation of the existing destination. In general, the municipality is therefore free to change destinations if it deems this necessary, but citizens who are objectively disadvantaged by this must be compensated.