Property Owner Liability

[ANewLevel]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting, so I apologize if this is not the correct thread for this post.

So here's my situation, I'm looking to start my own "home based" business as a sole proprietor. However, I currently rent a place, and my city says that I need the landlord's signature to register the business license. I spoke to my landlord and he is okay with doing so, but he brought up a good question, if a client were to try and sue me, would he or his assets (i.e. house) be clear of any liability associated with my business?

To be clear, I only call this business home based in the sense that the license will use the home address. I will not actually be doing any work from the location.

Please let me know what you all think, thanks!

[Freelancier]

Maybe your business license should use a mailbox place instead. Since you don't own the premises, anything that happens outside of it shouldn't put it at risk. But that doesn't preclude a customer coming to your place to give you something, slipping on the sidewalk and breaking a hip. Then everyone is at risk. But that scenario is true of your friends as well, so hopefully your landlord has figured this out.

[ANewLevel]

Maybe your business license should use a mailbox place instead. Since you don't own the premises, anything that happens outside of it shouldn't put it at risk. But that doesn't preclude a customer coming to your place to give you something, slipping on the sidewalk and breaking a hip. Then everyone is at risk. But that scenario is true of your friends as well, so hopefully your landlord has figured this out.

That makes sense, and as far as the license, the city/county requires a physical address for me to register the name. But I can use a mailing address (i.e. PO Box) for customer facing reasons, so I don't anticipate any clients stopping by the house.

[tallen]

Freelancier's idea of using a "mailbox place" gives you a physical address, rather than a PO Box -- your address would be something like "32 Main Street, Suite 502," as if your headquarters were in the second office suite on the 5th floor of the office building at 32 Main Street....