House contents insurer for working from home with clients visiting?

Oxford_Guy

Hi - our previous house contents insurer (Endsleigh) won't insure us anymore, as my wife has recently changed her work situation and is now working as a French Tutor, mostly from home, and we have quite a few (mostly adult) students visiting the house each day for tutorial sessions.

This situation seems to be problematic for a number of insurers and I'm having problems finding a reasonable number of insurers who *would* insure us, in order to get a number of comparative quotes. Can anyone recommend some insurers who would insure us under these circumstances - i.e. working from home with clients regularly visiting?

I imagine there must be plenty of people on the same boat, not just language tutors, but osteopaths, acupuncturists etc., though perhaps they use some kind of business insurance? Actually - would it make more sense for my wife to register her French Tutoring work as a limited company and to get some sort of business insurance?

NB: we live in a rented property and don't require buildings insurance, just contents

Any tips/suggestions welcome! Thanks

InsideInsurance

Does your council and landlord know you are going this?

Having onsite clients tends to create significant issues much wider than just home insurance related

Oxford_Guy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Does your council and landlord know you are going this?

Having onsite clients tends to create significant issues much wider than just home insurance related

Yes, its been agreed with the landlord and my wife is registered as a sole trader/freelancer with HMRC etc. All the other legal aspects we've looked into properly as far as I'm aware.

warwicktiger

Is there a trade body for tutors? They will know insurers

*Scarlett

Maybe try

http://www.homeprotect.co.uk/property-usage/working-from-home
or
http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/home-business/

Oxford_Guy

warwicktiger wrote: »

Is there a trade body for tutors? They will know insurers

In the UK not as such, I think, though there is some discussion about this:
http://www.thetutorblog.com/2012/07/cmre-association-of-private-tutors/

InsideInsurance

The local council will be about weather you need to pay business rates and/or submit a change of use given you have business visitors to the property.

It may well not apply to you but a friend got herself into a right mess when a neighbour informed/ grassed to the council that she was running an acupuncture business from home

Oxford_Guy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The local council will be about weather you need to pay business rates and/or submit a change of use given you have business visitors to the property.

It may well not apply to you but a friend got herself into a right mess when a neighbour informed/ grassed to the council that she was running an acupuncture business from home

I'm pretty sure we've got this side of things covered, my wife looked into all this quite a while back and spoke to the relevant people, filled out the relevant forms etc. She's been careful to keep everything "above board" to avoid potential problems later.

magpiecottage

I think LV would probably do it and seem to be competitive. Registering as a limited company can have a downside in that you would have to get a business bank account and submit returns to companies house etc.

On the other hand it is likely to save on National Insurance.

Oxford_Guy

magpiecottage wrote: »

I think LV would probably do it and seem to be competitive.

Do you mean Liverpool Victoria? i.e.
http://www.lv.com/insurance/home_insurance/

Registering as a limited company can have a downside in that you would have to get a business bank account and submit returns to companies house etc.

On the other hand it is likely to save on National Insurance.

Okay, think she will stay as a sole trader/freelancer for now...