Unable to find working from home cover for a wooden building, recommendations please?

RyanONeill1970

Hi all,

You would think this was simple but no, I have not been able to find anyone who will insure me working from home in my office above a wooden two bay garage. I am a software developer in a low crime area and the building is secure. The problem is with the 'woody' nature of the building.

The building itself is covered under the home policy and allthough Barclays did cover the building for fire and contents, they said they would not cover me working in there which is bizarre. I also asked other insurers and got specific working from home quotes via a broker, I found one and took them up but they did not listen to the 'it is wooden with slates' bit and when I pointed this out again, they ran off too.

So we've moved to Kwik-fit for home and outbuildings who will again cover the building itself but do not offer working from home insurance.

To summarise, I cannot get anyone to cover me with a 'working from home' extension to a home policy due to the woodiness of the building. I cannot get anyone else to cover me with a specific working from home policy that is just covering the computer equipment (not the building, that is still under the house policy).

The garage is detached (if it was not, apparently Barclays would have been OK!) and the equipment I want to cover is £8000 worth. Just for replacement, no business continuity etc.

Does anyone know (I mean really know from experience) of a good insurer that will do this? You might think they do, but they all have the same response and 'wooden buildings insurance' brings up lots of junk spam in Google that again, does not cover it (I've called them).

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

mattymoo

If you are trying to do all this via the internet or phone, that is where your problem is. These revenue streams (for the insurers) are configured to handle bog standard risks only, eg. 3 bed semi brick built with slate or tiles, aka standard construction.

The quote engines cannot handle anything out of the ordinary and half the people in the call centres will not have much of a clue either.

Best bet would be to speak to an insurance broker specialising in home worker schemes or policies for self employed IT workers. Such schemes will normally be managed by a team of around 6 people under a delegated authority scheme from the insurers. They will have almost certainly encountered these issues before and will be able to speak to the insurer's technical person to agree rates and any special terms that apply.

Funny really when you consider Apple started in a garage and HP started in a glorified wooden shed many moons ago.

Just doing some research for you now -
Try Hiscox (highly rated direct insurer and the exception to my rule above) -
https://www.hiscox.co.uk/business/?scheme=google1&rw.cm=Google,PPC

BIB Insurance (a broker) - http://www.bibinsurance.co.uk/home-office-insurance.asp
Ecclesiastical (an insurer that normally covers churches and mansions and so are used to non standard buildings) -
http://www.ecclesiastical.com/ourproducts/insurance/homeinsurance/index.aspx
NFU Mutual - another highly regarded insurer with a local branch network. They are usually happy to visit and see the building for themselves and discuss your needs. Most insurers will not do this (relying on a narrow acceptance criteria instead) but NFU have to as most farmers do not have the time or inclination to use the internet. See http://www.nfumutual.co.uk/business/business-insurance/working-from-home.htm

RyanONeill1970

I've called NFU, lets hope they are not as useless as the others or their acronym implies
Ryan

dacouch

As matty mentioned try a good local broker eg not Swintons etc, there are a number of Insurers who offer this type of cover. My first port of call would be Norwich Union under their Home Plus Policy which covers wooden buildings and their contents but with a loading.