Tutor and home insurance

Narc0lepsy

I have recently gone freelance as a tutor and assessor, and my house building/contents insurance is due for renewal. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations? Most of my tutoring work will be away from home, but assessments will be done in the home and the clients could be any age. I will be doing paperwork to run the business and prepare lessons etc from home.

I know there was a thread about this a couple of years ago, but I just wondered if anyone had any recent experience, good or bad.

thanks

Spikey1

Hi,

You need to tell your Home insurers about this.

If you use you home for business purposes, especially if visitors come to your home, they may consider this to be an increased risk and will consider whether they need to add special terms to the cover.

In addition if you are using any equipment for business purposes...computer, printer, desk, copier etc. it may not be covered under your standard household policy. Some policies DO allow cover for business equipment up to say £7,500, but many don't.

Best advice is to discuss with your current Insurer and see if they can cater for your needs and on what terms...if its not acceptable then you need to shop around.

Best of luck

InsideInsurance

Having clients visit your home is potentially going to cause all sorts of headaches.

From an insurance point of view you may be able to get some aspects covered by a standard policy but almost certainly will have an endorsement applied on theft claims that there must be evidence of violence or forced entry (ie no cover for thefts by your clients). You also almost certainly wont be covered for any injury they sustain whilst on your property as a client so may need separate PL cover.

Outside of the insurance consideration you may also need to contact your landlord/ mortgage provider to confirm business use is acceptable and likewise the council & planning office due to the new mixed usage.

You may find it is easier to hire some office space/ meeting rooms for the occasions that you need to do the assessments rather than dealing with it in your own home if you are wanting to do everything above board

Narc0lepsy

Thanks for your input, it's given me a few things to think about. Luckily I don't have a mortgage, the house is my own. The possible theft endorsement sounds fair enough. It may even work out easier just to do the assessments in a client's home, if the insurance and other things work out too expensive - although it is a lot of stuff to carry around. As I've only just made this my sole business, I don't know how many assessments I will be doing so it is hard to work out whether e.g. one per month is worth a much higher premium. I'm rural so renting office space isn't likely.

thanks anyway.

Narc0lepsy

Quick update; all sorted. A specified number of escorted business visitors per month is ok, a set amount (adequate) of business equipment included as standard, as is public liability. All for £30 less than the non-business quote from my previous company, plus £1 or so via topcashback/confused.com and 1000 Nectar points!

My OH works for the council; they aren't concerned as it isn't much of a change of use - no machinery, storage, advertising, lots of customers arriving at unsocial hours etc.

Less hassle than I had expected, but thanks for your input - at least I knew what to ask when I rang them!

esmuser

Narc0lepsy wrote: »

Quick update; all sorted. A specified number of escorted business visitors per month is ok, a set amount (adequate) of business equipment included as standard, as is public liability. All for £30 less than the non-business quote from my previous company, plus £1 or so via topcashback/confused.com and 1000 Nectar points!

Could you let us know which company offers this? I'm interested in precisely the same kind of cover.

Thanks.

magpiecottage

From experience, it is not usually a problem although some may want to restrict cover.

If you think about it, although there is a slight risk a student might steal from you, there is far less risk that you will be burgled whilst teaching in your home than when the house is empty because you are tutoring elsewhere.

Narc0lepsy

esmuser wrote: »

Could you let us know which company offers this? I'm interested in precisely the same kind of cover.

Thanks.

HomeProtect, part of AXA.