Rules
Part of Coworking space: what a license agreement gives you
Coworking space rules: your agreement, the operator above you, your duties
Coworking space rules, layer by layer: the agreement and house rules you sign, the operator's own deal with the building, and your duties as employer.
Nobody publishes a rulebook for flexible workspace. What governs your arrangement is a stack of separate things: the agreement you sign, the house rules it incorporates, the operator's arrangement with the building, and public obligations that apply to the premises regardless of who sits there.
This page separates those layers, so you know which questions have a document behind them and which do not.
What follows is written for a real arrangement. The private layers are whatever your particular agreement says, and the public layers are the ones in force at your address, adopted on your state's or city's own cycle.
What to take away
- The rules that bind you most tightly are private ones, written by the operator, and usually changeable without your agreement.
- Whether your document creates an interest in land or only a permission decides what happens when the arrangement ends badly.
- The public obligations attach to the premises and to the employer, so some of them are yours even though you do not control the building.
Layer one: what you signed
Read it as four separate things, because they behave differently.
License vs Lease
License
- What it is
- permission
- Protections
- few
- Ends
- quickly
- Decided by
- what it does
Lease
- What it is
- interest
- Protections
- attached
- Ends
- with protection
- Decided by
- what it does
- The core terms.Price, what is included, notice both ways, and the commitment period.
- The house rules.Usually incorporated by reference, usually amendable by the operator, and usually where the day-to-day restrictions live: guest policy, noise and filming, pets, signage, meeting-room booking, kitchen and printing use.
- The schedules.Metered items and their rates. This is where a straightforward arrangement grows.
- The character of the document.Whether it operates as a license or as a lease is decided by what it does rather than by its title, and it is the difference between a permission that can end quickly and an interest with protections attached.
What those figures look like in practice. In the WeWork US member agreement, service credit and replacement fees can be raised on thirty days' advanced notice, an office with capacity for fifty to ninety-nine members owes six months' notice to terminate, and a breach left unremedied for ten days after notice lets the operator end the agreement.
Layer two: the arrangement above yours
The operator is normally a tenant, so a document you will never see governs the space you are sitting in. A head lease of that kind usually runs longer than your agreement and settles the use the premises may be put to, the rent, the term, who has to consent to any assignment or subletting, and the condition the space must be handed back in at the end, ordinarily the same condition it was received in, ordinary wear and tear excepted. If it ends, your agreement ends with it.
- What is your arrangement with this building, and how long does it run?
- What happens to members if it ends?
You are not entitled to the document. You are entitled to ask, and a refusal to describe the position in any terms at all is information. The general framework governing the relationship above you is summarized under landlord-tenant law, and what to look for in that relationship is in commercial leasing.
Layer three: what applies to the premises
These obligations attach to the building and the activity, not to your contract, and they do not disappear because somebody else manages the space.
- Means of egress.Exit routes have to stay usable, which is the point of the federal requirement at 29 CFR 1910.37. Ask who is responsible for what, and note that the answer for your own staff may be you.
- Life safety.The Life Safety Code is NFPA 101, adopted through state and local building and fire codes, and it sits behind occupancy limits, alarms and evacuation arrangements. What applies at your door is the edition your state or city has adopted.
- Accessibility.Where the space is open to the public, duties described under ADA Title III apply to the route from the street as much as to the room.
- Land use.Whether your activity is permitted at that address is a local question, answered by the planning or zoning office of the city or county, and the certificate of occupancy that allows the use is issued by the local building department. The operator's permission covers the operator's own use. How to check yours is in zoning and permits.
Layer four: what applies to you as an employer
The operator does not become your employer, and several duties travel with you.
- Your own insurance, at whatever the agreement requires and whatever your business actually needs, including workers' compensation coverage, which employers are required to carry in almost every state.
- Health and safety duties toward your own staff, which do not pass to the operator: the general duty clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, makes you responsible for hazards you create or control even in a building you do not own.
- Confidentiality and data handling, in a shared building with a shared network and a cleaning contractor.
- Anything your own sector regulator requires about where and how you keep records.
How to find out what applies to you
- Read the agreement and the house rules together, in one sitting, and write down every place they refer to a document you have not seen.
- Ask for those documents, and note which ones you are refused.
- Ask the operator, in writing, what happens to members if their own arrangement with the building ends.
- Confirm with the city or county planning or zoning office that your activity, not general office use, is permitted at the address.
- Ask your insurer what changes when you work in shared premises.
- On anything long, large or guaranteed, have a property lawyer read the agreement.
Keep the answers together. This is a small file and it is the whole of your protection.
What changes, and when
Two clauses turn a stable arrangement into a moving one: the ability to change the house rules, and the ability to change the price. Both are ordinary and both are negotiable at the start. Ask what warning you get, and whether a change gives you a right to leave.
The third moving part is the building. If it is sold, refinanced or repositioned, the arrangement above yours may change without anybody consulting the people at the desks.
Why the rules layer feels thin
If the rules layer feels thin, that is because it is: the trade is speed and flexibility against protection. The comparison across five ways of holding space is in coworking space, and the sizing work that tells you whether you need a permanent office at all is in office space.
Common questions
Can the operator change the house rules while I am there?
Usually yes, and the agreement will say so. What matters is the notice you get and whether a change you cannot live with lets you leave.
Does calling it a license make it one?
No. Courts look at what the document actually does: whether you have exclusive possession, and on what terms. If that distinction matters to your business, it is worth a lawyer's hour before you sign.
Am I responsible for my staff's safety in someone else's building?
Your duties as an employer do not transfer to the operator. What the operator controls and what you control should be settled in writing, before there is an incident rather than after.
Is any of this negotiable?
The core terms often are, especially notice and price protection. The house rules rarely are, because they are written for everybody in the building.
