Insurance for working from home

If you work from home, you need the right insurance for your home-based business.

Amy smith
Amy Smith
Updated October 2020  | 3 min read read

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:

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.

Key Points

  • If you’re a contractor, freelancer or self-employed and work from home, it’s likely you’ll need business insurance to protect you and your company
  • You may need public liability insurance if customers visit your home, or employers’ liability if you have people working for you
  • You might need a specialist policy to cover your business equipment

How do I buy home business insurance?

Because every business has its own unique cover requirements, business insurance policies are made up of the elements relevant to that specific business – you can pick and choose the cover you need.

So if you work from home and need to cover business valuables that you keep there, you can add it to a business policy, along with other elements you might need such as public liability, employers’ liability or something like tool cover.

Do I need home-based business insurance?

  • Business-related guests visit your property more than once a month
  • You have paying guests staying there

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.