Hi I'm Jean, 

I have a small property that I am a landlord of. I live in the house with tenants. And have a back house that I rent to a tenant separately.  

I currently have one live in tenant, and I want to have a room lease term in the lease that does not allow tenants to work from home. I already have a term that does not allow them to have a home based business.  My live in tenants are always month to month. 

Are there any legalities against this?

Are you the owner / landlord ?

Your lease can be specific and can say no home based / operated business permitted. 

So if it's for a room or a 1 br apt, or a house, as long as the term is in there it would apply to your tenants/ roomer. If your the owner it would not apply to you.

I would bet your insurance also prohibits tenants from having a business on your property.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I am the landlord/owner. My post states I already do have a term that doesn't allow home based businesses. 

My question is about 'working from home', as in employment that is remote. And how to prevent that. 

working from home,, is working within the home.. and doing computer work for a outside company or your own personal company is employment and would not be permitted per your lease.. hard to prove... these days.. but then even checking a work related email would be violation of the lease.. 

???

If you are aware that the tenant is not operating a home business but simply performing the functions of his job while inside his home (and this does not involve increased traffic, paying customers, commercial enhancments made to the unit), why would a landlord be concerned, as long as the tenant is paying the rent on time?

I mean, would this mean that you discriminate against computer programmers, software engineers, adjunct professors that teach online classes, etc?

Yes because I live in the house , I want to choose who rents the room. I can prescreen by finding out if  they have a job they drive to, however if they loose that job and find a remote job, this is something I was looking into a lease term for.
Why? I prefer to not to live with someone who works from home. period.
Hence the month to month lease. 

I'm a software engineer. I'm not discriminating against  any 'field' . 
I am minding where someone works, either at the job or remotely via the rental property. 

Keep in mind, this is because I live in the house. 

How would you know per say if someone was working from home vs taking some time off. I feel like this is something that would be difficult for you to "prove" if you were to enforce it. The tenant could just simply lie and say they weren't working, how would you prove otherwise?

I don't need to prove anything if I live with them and they tell me 'I'm working remotely'...

?

It seems like I can just stick to a month to month, if I'm unhappy with anyone working from home or any other reason => 30 day notice. 

Originally posted by @Jean W. :

I don't need to prove anything if I live with them and they tell me 'I'm working remotely'...

?

It seems like I can just stick to a month to month, if I'm unhappy with anyone working from home or any other reason => 30 day notice. 

I'm assuming the entire point of putting this in the lease is to be able to evict them for breaking the lease if they work from home? I'm also assuming it's important because you want to put it in the lease... so you'd tell the person if they work from home they're gone..... so why would the person admit it?

To me it seems like it's just extra terms that doesn't really accomplish anything and increases your risk for very little return. I think you're correct that a 30 day would be the way to go...

Yes I should have thought of it that way. 

I was thinking more along the lines that my point was to tell tenants coming in with a location job that if they switch to a remote job, they will be asked to leave. 

But I think you are right, just keep it 30 day and cross that bridge when it comes. 

Some people work from home 1-3 days a week and go to the office the rest of the time. I think the best way to prohibit this is to to discuss and screen for it upfront. If you are in the same house should be straightforward. home businesses and routine home based work or telecommuting is prohibited. I would allow incidental weather related telecommuting but that is me. You might want to address upfront because not everyone will bring it up.