Working from Home Insurance

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Are you insured to work from home?

Working from home has become the new normal for many people because of Covid-19 pandemic. To read how this impacts your insurance cover, please click here.

However, even before Covid-19, the number of people working from home had increased to 1.7 million with the number of people counting their home business as their main source of income being four times higher than it was in 2018. The 2019 Office for National Statistics figures show that around 4 million people work from home at some point during the working week. 1

If you are working from home for your employer, as a freelancer, or running your own business, there are a few things you ought to consider in respect of your home insurance.

The following should still be disclosed:
  • If you’ve built a home office in the garden, including a log cabin or smart shed.
    These outbuildings will need to be insured for fire, storm or flood.
  • Business visitors
    Your home policy may not cover business visitors to your home who, if they were to be injured, could hold you liable, so you will need to ensure that you have adequate Public Liability insurance. If you have employees, you may need additional liability insurance cover as most home insurance policies are designed to insure domestic staff only.
  • Business equipment, stock and contents
    Who is covering IT equipment in the event of a claim – your employer? If you keep stock at home, you will need to inform your insurer and make sure that these items are covered under your policy. You may need a separate business policy or to extend your current home insurance to cover business use.

If you bought your policy online, you will need to check with your insurer. Many insurers will often ask the question about business use as part of a longer list of questions to which it is very easy to answer “no” to by ticking a box or without reading the small print. All is fine until you have a claim, at which point the insurer may reduce the amount paid, decline to pay or cancel the policy entirely.

Of course, working from home can often reduce the risk to insurers. There’s a far lower risk of theft or large escape of water claim. If your current insurer doesn’t recognise this, call us for advice.

1 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes
/articles/coronavirusandhomeworkingintheuklabourmarket/2019

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