Social Media Influencers Face Legal Threats Making TikToks at Home, Lawyers Warn

Such rules typically restrict properties from being used for business purposes, which can catch out social media creators who use their flats to produce paid content.

Afsheen Nasr, Managing Partner at RFB Legal, described it as a growing risk: “I have come across countless new-build leases that come with stricter leasehold conditions than we have previously seen, particularly in large growing cities like Manchester and London”,

“What many young buyers don’t realise is these conditions could prevent them from filming TikTok videos inside their own flats.”

“We work with popular influencers who have carved out a high-earning career making social media content, and are using that money to buy a city centre home.

“They don’t realise they could be sleepwalking into legal trouble because the terms of their lease actually forbid that.”

Running a business from home is already a common restriction in residential leases, according to the Law Society.

Its guidance advises buyers to check the restrictions carefully to make sure they do not prevent them from using the property in the way they want.

“A 30 or 40-page lease can contain dozens of rights and restrictions that will affect how somebody lives in their new home,” said Afsheen.

“The job is to know which of those your client needs to be particularly aware of.

“There can also be a managing agent, service charges and far more paperwork to understand than with a straightforward freehold purchase. The lawyer needs to understand what all of that will actually mean for the buyer once they own the property.”

The warning comes as the volume of new-build development has increased the amount of complex conveyancing work being handled by property lawyers.

“Junior conveyancers are now cutting their teeth on work that previously would often have been left to a partner or a more senior lawyer,” said Afsheen.

“There is now so much of this work that firms have to train people on it from day one.”

Afsheen has seen that change directly through RFB Legal's own new-build work. At Deansgate Square in Manchester alone, the firm acted for more than 100 buyers.

“New-build work has become something of an accidental specialism of our Manchester office as the city has developed around us.

“You cannot deal with that volume of complex work by leaving it all with a handful of senior lawyers. More people in the team have to learn how to do it.”