If you are someone who works from home, then you will need to take out working from home insurance. TechRound details everything you need to know right here. You can contact us to get in touch with one of our partners at [email protected].
There are a number of advantages when it comes to working from home, such as being in a comfortable and controlled environment as well as not having to travel to get to the office and therefore, saving a bit of extra cash.
According to the Office For National Statistics, it has been reported that there are over 4.2 million people who are currently working in the UK from home and around 2 million that will work both at home and in an office. This is actually increasing each and every year.
Whether you have a home office, workshop, practice, salon or online business run from home, you will need insurance in place in order to protect your work and your equipment from dangers such as fire, flood, theft and vandalism.
Most general household policies will cover your building and contents, but it could actually invalidate your policy if you do fail to mention to your insurer that you are working from home. Simply paying a few extra pounds per month will allow you to extend your home policy and cover your home-based business for any eventuality. Even by giving an extra £15 per annum could get you a much needed extra £1,000 worth of cover.
We are going to look at the different kinds of policies which you can look further into to see what you feel you need to be covered when working from home.
Business and Home Insurance in One Policy
It is possible for you to find policies which will insure your home insurance with your business insurance into one single policy. This will save you and your business a lot of time and effort as it can work to reduce your admin with one bulk document and one renewal date each year to deal with.
These policies can also be tailored to fit your specific business needs. Therefore, if you have lots of equipment in your home which is used to carry out your work, or visitors on a daily basis, the policy can be modified to make sure that all the necessary cover is in place for that.
If you hold stock as part of your business because you make products, prepare food or sell the goods online, you can get these covered by your insurance in case anything gets damaged by no fault of your own, or stolen. The policy you have selected will be able to pay out to help you replace the asset. This will ultimately limit the interruption to your business and allow you to continue trading with minimum hassle.
Liability Insurance For Working at Home
Just because you work at home, it does not mean that you won’t be liable for damages if a customer or individual is harmed as part of your business conduction. For example, if you offer beauty treatments from your home and you accidentally burn someone with hot wax – you will still be liable.
Public liability insurance covers you for any claims made by someone that has come to your home for the purposes of the services you offer from home. This is particularly perfect for those who will be having regular clients or patients coming through the door such as people who work as medical practitioners, tutors and therapists.
Professional Indemnity is another form of liability cover which will protect the professional advice that you provide to clients and customers. Despite your best interests, things can go wrong and you do not want to be paying through the nose for an honest mistake. If your advice does end up having a negative effect on a customer, you may risk being sued by the customer. This is rather common in medical practices where patients feel the incorrect diagnosis or treatment has been given for them. Having this type of insurance in place can pay for any compensation to the customer or if you need to fund legal fees.
Products liability is the perfect type of cover for people who are selling products from their home. This applies to artists, potters, entrepreneurs, designers and chefs. You may find that you end up facing legal action if a customer is accidentally harmed by your product. So, having products liability allows you to protect your business from anything that may be out of your control.
