Insurance for working from home

Am I covered to work from home under home insurance?

When finding home insurance quotes, you’ll be asked if your home has ever been used for business or professional purposes. You’ll be given the choice of three options:

• Clerical business use
• Regular business visitors to the property
• Other business use - If you’re something like a professional potter or carpenter and you have a workshop in your house, this might fall under other business use.

If you’re not sure how to define your home working situation, get in touch with your insurance provider who can help you.

Working from home as an employee

If you work remotely from home for an employer, and your property is not used for any other home business use, you may need to liaise with your home insurer to check you have the level of cover you need.

If clients regularly visit your home, you might need cover for injuries or damages they suffer while on your property, so you may need public liability insurance as part of your policy.

Equipment owned by your employer used to help you work remotely, will not need to be listed under your home insurer, as it will likely be covered by your employer’s own business insurance cover.

If you’re using your own computer, printers or other equipment to work remotely, you’ll need to insure these items yourself or risk paying for repairs and replacements yourself if they’re lost or damaged.

Working from home as an employer

If you’re a contractor, freelancer, or self-employed and use your home as a business premises, you’ll need insurance that protects you, your equipment, your employees and your clients or customers.

The range of cover you may need includes:

• Contents insurance for computers, office equipment and stock.
• Buildings insurance to protect your business premises
• Public liability insurance if you have customers who visit your home regularly.
• Employers’ liability insurance if you have people working for you from your home.
• Professional indemnity insurance If you give out advice that could cause your client to lose money

Business equipment won’t be covered under a home buildings or contents policy, so you need something more specialist:

• If you use a laptop, printer or other office equipment, check your home insurance policy for ‘Clerical use’.
• You’ll need to tell your insurer that you have regular visitors to your place.

That applies even if you’re an Airbnb host.