Whether you work from home as an employee or are self-employed, it is likely that you could require some form of insurance – or at least an extension to an existing policy.
Most major insurers are likely to view any work-based activities that take place in your home as an added risk, and will therefore result in higher premiums on your policy.
You may be tempted to just ignore this and hope that your standard home insurance policy will cover you, but this could be a big mistake if you have to make a claim. If your home insurance provider learns that you have been working from home and have not told them, they could use that to void your policy – leaving you facing the prospect of paying for the claim yourself. Some home insurance and buildings/contents policies actually exclude cover for home working, and others may not provide cover for any expensive items related to your business – e.g. laptops, printers, photocopier etc…
Some home insurers will offer cover for up to £5,000 of home office equipment on top of the usual home contents such as TVs, tablets, laptops etc… but even these policies might not extend to covering any specialist work-related equipment.
Therefore you may find your best bet is to supplement your home insurance with an “all-risks” policy that covers business equipment. All-risks policies can even extend to cover your business items when they are taken out of the home, e.g. your laptop when you take it to a meeting.
What other insurance do I need if I work from home?
Any other insurance products you may need will require on the nature of your work.
For example, if your work requires you to have visitors to your house (e.g. a wedding photographer inviting people to view their photos) then you should consider getting public liability insurance as well to cover you if a visitor has an accident.
It’s not compulsory, but it will protect you from any loss or damage resulting from claims made by a visitor to your home who is there for business reasons. It will also cover any legal fees and other expenses you may incur when defending a claim.
If you have any employees then you may be legally required to have employer’s liability insurance, and also travel insurance if you you or your employees are ever required to travel abroad for work.
If you use your car for business then you may need to upgrade your car insurance to make sure it covers business use, and obviously if you have a van then you need the right form of van insurance suited to your business (goods in transit, hire for reward etc…).
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