Working From Home & Home Insurance

ed4mgf

Due to Covid-19 I am having to work from home full time, but didn’t know how this would affect my home insurance and any costs associated to this?

comeandgo

I had to tell my insurance company but it made no difference to my costs.  The extra items I had, computer, printer, shredder, were all covered by my employer.  

davidmcn

Depends what sort of work you're doing and what risks you're wanting to insure. If it's "sitting at your desk with a laptop" for more hours per week than you normally do, I can't see it being a concern of the insurers, it's still obviously ancillary to the usual residential use of the property. They'd be more concerned about work which includes e.g. visitors turning up, though in current circumstances I presume that's unlikely.

TELLIT01

I had a e-mail from my insurer asking that people don't call them except in an emergency.  I wouldn't class working from home as emergency, so I believe I would have a strong case if they tried to refuse payment.

sheramber

Have you checked the insurance company's website for any update due to coronavirus?.

Old_Lifer

Clerical work done at home would not be a problem  but check that your laptop etc. is covered by your employers insurance.

An insurer would be  concerned  where the business use involves people visiting your home in connection with the business  or where there is any  equipment or stock  belonging to the business stored on the premises or if anything of a hazardous  nature is kept on the premises.

Strictly speaking,  you should inform your insurer if you are doing clerical work at home and they will put a note on the file .

David_Watts2

Strictly speaking,  you should inform your insurer if you are doing clerical work at home and they will put a note on the file 

Not necessarily true, depends what question the insurer asked about business use of the home. If you'd originally said no business use whatsoever as you never previously worked from home then it could be appropriate to now change that to "clerical work" or similar if it's an option. If you'd already told them you did work from home then there shouldn't be any need to tell them you're doing it more frequently. I know of at least one insurer that asks if there's any business use other than office or clerical work so if you answered that "no" then the answer remains correct.
My first suggestion would be to check the insurer's website for any CV related FAQs. The first one I looked at confirmed you do not need to notify them if you are doing clerical work at home nor do you need to inform them if your home is now currently occupied during the day when you previously stated it was normally empty. I'd expect most insurers to have put up relevant FAQs and to be taking a pragmatic approach that limits the need for customers to be contacting them.
If a look at the website doesn't resolve your query, see what question you were asked and whether or not the answer has changed (i.e. they may not be interested in office work at home anyway).

Old_Lifer

If you have already told  the insurer that you do clerical work at home you will not need to tell them again.    As clerical work done at home is not a concern for an insurer ,  it does  not surprise me to hear that at least one insurer lists it as a disregard.

The  reason you do not need to tell your insurer if the house is occupied during the day is  having someone  at home reduces the risk.    We are taught that most theft from dwelling houses  occurs  from empty houses in the early afternoon  and  I assume that this is still probably  the same today.    Burglary  was always an interesting subject and the CII tutor ( who worked for a large insurer) ,  taught us to look at things  from the point of view of the criminal  with  'interesting'  tips on how to break-into a house   and the 'correct' way to  rifle  a set of drawers  in order to do it as quickly and as quietly as possible.