working at home and home insurance

sunsetgirl

Hi,

I am a stay at home Mum and I make soft toys as a hobby in my spare time and sell them on a website like ebay called etsy.com.

I don't make very much money some times only £10 a week, but We get tax credits so I had to declare myself as a business to enter my earnings for tax credits purposes.

My problem is I am about to renue my home buildings and contents insurance, I don't know whether to to tell them about my bussiness or not as my premiums will surely go up more than I am actually earning!

What do other stay at home parents working from home do?

Kilty_2

Don't think there is any need to, unless the stock you use is worth a lot of money.

I am a freelance web designer working from home and will not be informing insurance company of it because the equipment I use is covered anyway.

edwara

I think you are supposed to tell them. You know what insurance companies can be like any excuse not to pay. Having said that I am not sure how they would know.

I sell greetings cards and asked my insurer about it. They wanted to know but becuase there is only a small amount of stock and no one comes to the house it doesn't m,ake any difference to the premium. I would imagine different insurers have different opinions on this. Why not ask - it may not make any difference.

My insurance is with Halifax.

fguk

Hi

Not a stay at home parent, but do work from home.

I run an IT consultancy from my kitchen, and have informed my home insurance company. They wanted to know what I did, what it involved. They were most worried/bothered about having significant sums of cash at home. The guy on the phone was not concerned after I answered those questions in relation to my business, but noted it on the file.

To clarify, all equipment I use, as it is essentially used only for the business, is covered by an "office policy", something which gives me cover for that plus public liabilty. However depending on your products, service, the legal status of your business, it is up to you whether you need to take out this separate policy.