Does my home insurance cover me to work from home? As more and more people are choosing flexible working or working from home, it's important to make sure you have the right cover
- Will working from home affect your home insurance?
- Can you run your business from your home?
- Should you get extra cover if you're now working from home?
Will working from home affect my home insurance?
No, if you're an office-based worker and need to work from home because of government advice or because you need to self-isolate, your LV= home insurance cover will not be affected. We already provide cover for office equipment like computers and printers - it comes as standard with our contents insurance.
There's no need to get in touch with us to let us know you're working from home, so you can just concentrate on setting up the perfect working from home space. No commuting, no distractions, and managing your own time - there are lots of positives to working from home. Not to mention the fact that you can be in your comfiest clothes with access to unlimited tea and coffee!
If you need to see clients at home, this may alter your home insurance cover as additional people coming to your house could be seen as more of an insurance risk, so your home insurance costs may increase. If you're not sure, just give us a call.
If you're not insured with LV=, you may need to tell your insurer. If you don't tell them that you work from home and need to make a claim in the future, it may have consequences so it's always worth checking.
If you're an office based worker and need to work from home, your home insurance with LV= will not be affected
Can I run my business from home?
Over 4.93 million people now class themselves as self-employed and many of them run a business from home.
When your home address is also your registered business address then your home insurance company will need to know the nature of your business.
They'll want to know:
- If you're just using your home for clerical work
- Whether you have regular visitors
- Whether you store goods at home and what they are
- Whether you hold any specialist tools or equipment
They may then decide to extend your contents cover to include your business stock and equipment, or they could ask you to take out separate cover for these items.
Do I need extra home insurance cover to work from home?
Depending on the nature of your job, you may want to make sure you're fully covered for accidents that happen as a result of working from home. If this is something you've been thinking about, you might consider taking out extra insurance such as extended accidental cover.
Public liability
This covers you if a visitor to your workplace is injured and makes a claim. It can also cover you if you accidently damage something that belongs to a customer.
Professional indemnity
This covers you if someone complains about the advice or service you have provided. They may sue if the advice you gave them was wrong or cost them money.
Employer's liability
If you employ anyone, on any basis, even volunteers, you need to have cover in case they injure themselves whilst they're working for you.
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Do you have the right cover?