Business insurance if have a woodburner

meanbean

Hi, has anyone encountered any problems with getting 'business at home' insurance policy if you have a woodburner fitted? I have a business from home involving some stock and even though my woodburner was fitted with by a HETAS engineer and with certification, my usual business insurance provider has said as it's not a 'standard heating device' they cannot give me a renewal quote.

??

martindow

It does seem odd having a blanket exclusion of a heating system used in many buildings. Have you tried phoning some insurance brokers to see if they can point you to an alternative company?

Wywth

Lots of pubs have open fires in them during the winter. Presumably they are insured?

comeandgo

I have seen office buildings and many joinery shops where there is a woodburning stove, it seems to be the focal point in new offices, so not sure if your problem is due to it also being your home?

meanbean

I've rung them again and their underwriter has escalated the issue to their head office for guidance. Is a bit farcical. The issue seems to be the combination of holding stock, working from home and having a woodburner. A combination of circumstances which I imagine many SMEs similarly have.

Have managed to get another quote from a broker who only specified stock needs to be kept more than a couple of meters away from heating sources, which it will be.

Will now also await the underwriter's head office take on things with interest.

martindow

Can you come back when you find a solution? I am in a similar position running a business from home and am thinking of installing a woodburner. Maybe I should reconsider.

leveller2911

meanbean wrote: »

I've rung them again and their underwriter has escalated the issue to their head office for guidance. Is a bit farcical. The issue seems to be the combination of holding stock, working from home and having a woodburner. A combination of circumstances which I imagine many SMEs similarly have.

Have managed to get another quote from a broker who only specified stock needs to be kept more than a couple of meters away from heating sources, which it will be.


We have a workshop built from concrete with 6mm steel floor and we can't get any insurance for a woodburner in the workshop.The closest we are allowed is a woodburner outside with ducting into the workshop. There are a few companies out there making external woodburners but they are expensive.

We make Joinery but even having a woodburner inside with guarding around as a safeguard is still a big no no..

Who was your quote through?

bobsmum

leveller2911 wrote: »

We have a workshop built from concrete with 6mm steel floor and we can't get any insurance for a woodburner in the workshop.The closest we are allowed is a woodburner outside with ducting into the workshop. There are a few companies out there making external woodburners but they are expensive.

We make Joinery but even having a woodburner inside with guarding around as a safeguard is still a big no no..

Who was your quote through?

Leveller - have you tried NFU Mutual? We have business premises on an ex-chicken farm- the workshop next to us is a joinery, run from a wooden building, with a woodburner (internal) , and I know they are insured with NFU (so are we, but we don't have a woodburner - yet). May not be of use to the OP but might be worth speaking to your local NFU office ...

meanbean

Original insurer (NatWest business insurance came back to say they would not insure stock with woodburner on premises, final). Ended up with quote for Chaucer and taking it up! Will add review storage situation of stock to my to-do-in-future list.

To poster asking about installing a woodburner - I guess it depends on how much you need the insurance - I have stock and need public/product liability insurance all in one wraparound insurance policy, which has proved problematic.

I have friends who work from home with a wood fuel heating system but they only undertake office work, and have cloud systems for documents backup etc, so have differing insurance needs. I guess it all depends on what you are doing for business.

leveller2911

bobsmum wrote: »

Leveller - have you tried NFU Mutual? We have business premises on an ex-chicken farm- the workshop next to us is a joinery, run from a wooden building, with a woodburner (internal) , and I know they are insured with NFU (so are we, but we don't have a woodburner - yet). May not be of use to the OP but might be worth speaking to your local NFU office ...

Hi Bobsmum,
I did try NFU for workshop insurance but they weren't interested because I share the workshop with a friend.We are two seperate businesses but running from the single workshop.They said they couldn't insure me unless there was a brickwall seperating our work benches.lol don't ask me why as I haven't got a clue the reasoning behind it.

I spoke to the Battle (East Sussex) office and they were not very helpful at all. Thanks for the info Appreciated.I'm also on an online woodwork forum and it seems to be a real problem.Many of the members just fit a wood burner without their insurance companies knowledge. Big problems if they ever make a claim.