Approval for basement office - Freelancer (digital work only)

Similar situation with me. The room is declared as a hobby room in the approval plan. However, this has been the case from the beginning, because actually it is a small granny flat, which I did not want to define as such for certain reasons. I rent the room (including shower bathroom, plus storage room and workshop) together with my wife to my GmbH. Nobody cares... Of course, I have to pay tax on the rental income, but this way it is clearly separated and neither the tax office nor the building authority can complain. A second escape route is available.

So, I am self-employed and work a lot from home. I cannot provide direct reports on this matter, as there is a stock. But I still don't quite understand why this should be an obstacle now?

As a freelancer/self-employed person/freelancer, you can have a matching commercial and private address and register your business there, can't you? That doesn't turn residential property into commercial real estate, not even partially. Whether you sit with your laptop on the sofa or on the toilet is nobody's business at the building authority. And now the mentioned office is simply a home office. From my point of view, this is not even trickery but absolutely legal. If in doubt, spend another 100 euros on legal advice. But I would be very surprised if that were problematic. No freelancer is required to have an office. A serviceable address is sufficient!

I have just found out that the municipality can unfortunately forbid my activity after all. In a general residential area, the building authority does not have to make exceptions, even for a "quiet" online business. Our municipality has unfortunately excluded these exceptions in the development plan. Unfortunately read too late. The letter from the building authority also points this out "since the development plan designates a general residential area, but excludes exceptions according to § 4 para. 3 Building Use Ordinance."

I am only allowed to register the business there if the development plan permits it. I don’t know if the municipality would complain immediately upon business registration. But I suspect they would.

Unfortunately, our municipality has excluded these exceptions in the development plan.

Could you please post the paragraph for reading and learning? Perhaps someone can also translate the technical jargon.

Hm, that is really annoying. I just checked again, and there are obviously also rulings from the Federal Administrative Court stating that precisely that quiet (compatible with residential use) usage in residential areas is unproblematic and must be allowed. I am not a lawyer. If one wanted to take the risk, one could certainly rely in a procedure on the fact that higher-ranking law (and rulings) actually override the local development plan. But of course, one also lives in the community, so it would probably be stupid to completely ruin the relationship right from the start.

I am only allowed to register the business there if the development plan permits it. Whether the municipality would complain immediately upon business registration, I don’t know. But I suspect so.