Employer of house rules (4)
I believe the answer is:
user
'employer' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'of house rules' is the wordplay.
'of' says the answer is hidden in the clue.
'USER' is hidden within 'house rules'.
(Other definitions for user that I've seen before include "Drug addict (colloq.)" , "Ruse for employer" , "One exploiting others" , "Manipulator" , "One who employs" .)