Is this legal?

A question about : Is this legal?

I run a dog walking business and was thinking of branching out into dog boarding. I want to have a register of boarders on my books to enable me to match the dog to the most suited boarder.

I want to have these people employed by me so I can include a clause in their contract about not boarding any dogs not referred by myself.

The only thing I'm not sure about is payment. The boarder would receive a small amount of money per dog, certainly not min wage for the amount of hours the dog is in their home. Is this legal? Obviously they do not have to give the dog their sole attention the whole of the time the dog is staying there.

I know that people who work nights but are able to sleep in this time don't have top be paid nmw, is my situation the same? And if it is could someone point me in the right direction to a document that states this?

Obviously I will be getting a contract drawn up with the help of a solicitor but I would like to know if it is even possible before I spend out anything!

Thanks

Best answers:

• Per dog per night would be the obvious way, just like a kennel.
• Employing these people does not sound very realistic for this kind of operation to me: it seems more like ad hoc sub-contracting. Have you read up on the responsibilities of employers?
• As above, you dont want these as employees, if you do you open a world of pain that would include minimum wage.
  These people can be self employed and your standard contract with them can equally contain a clause about them not being allowed to take boarding work from others.
  As they are self employed and not employees then its fully up to you and them what rate is paid and isnt subject to minimum wage etc. Indeed setting it at a per task basis rather than time makes it easier to defend the fact they are not employees.
• I have never been involved with the dog world, but I wonder how many people would accept that condition. Also, if they wanted to board dogs why would they do it for you and you alone rather than directly? Have you got a lot of good contacts?
• On a purely financial note, if the business did become popular, and your turnover rose above the VAT limit, you would have to charge VAT which the end user could not recover and since the business is fee-based the Op would not be able to recover much VAT either.
• Here is an option with a similar result but much easier and cheaper and less risky - have an agreement with boarders that you will introduce clients in exchange for the first 3 (say) days fees (about Ј30 from your previous post). That will represent several weeks worth of profit, especially once you factored in contracts, taxes, the misery of employees, insurances, liabilities, etc. You get the money upfront without having to get in the middle of a client agency contractor relationship. If they get future work from the same client, good luck to 'em - it's really hard to monitor and calculate anyway.
  In short, take an introduction fee and butt out. Cheaper, easier, less ambiguous.
• ^^ I agree!
• All affiliate deals (including all the ones from this site that made Martin Lewis a multizillionaire) are effectively introduction fees as either a flat fee or percentage of a successful sale. OP has clients who want boarding, knows boarders who want clients, everyone wins.
• https://mydogbuddy.co.uk/terms/