Home insurance with lodger and etsy business

morgmonster

Hi, we've happily been insured with Tesco for many years on and off (buildings and contents) and I always ring them before renewal to get on the record that we have a lodger and that in addition to my regular employed job I have a small (tiny!) business selling items I've sewn on Etsy. We're talking turnover £4000 in a good year and I have my own small business insurance. Never a problem until yesterday where I was told off by the call handler and informed that Tesco would never cover me under such circumstances (it was the business that was the problem).  Luckily he didn't suggest our insurance for the past X years was invalid but said there was no record of my prior communication on the system. Rang back later and spoke to a nicer person who said that it would be referred to their underwriters but he had never known home cover to be agreed in these cases, expect for purely clerical work, home tuition or childminding.

I then rang a couple of the cheaper providers on moneysupermarket and got an outright no to even quote us, citing both the business and the lodger as the obstacles. They were apologetic but just said that's how we keep our costs down; fair enough.

I've been suggested to try Aviva next, their quote is twice the price Tesco was though, so I wondered if anyone had been through this recently and could recommend companies to try, or equally NOT to bother trying? I'm just wondering at what point to contact a broker as this could be a real time waster ringing through to every company individually and waiting on hold to talk to a real person.

pramsay13

Are you sure there haven't been crossed wires and he was meaning that your business isn't covered?
I also work from home and have my own business insurance, and each year I shop around for the best quote and make sure they are aware I run a business and it hasn't been an issue with any insurer. 

DullGreyGuy

Products offered directly and via brokers are not necessarily the same (and there are many brokers and intermediaries that people incorrectly call insurers) so speaking to brokers is always sensible anyway but if they're a true advisory broker they will be much more expensive than you're getting from Tesco

Admiral, if you dont mind being insured from Gibraltar, I believe are more forgiving on home businesses 

DullGreyGuy

pramsay13 said:

Are you sure there haven't been crossed wires and he was meaning that your business isn't covered?
I also work from home and have my own business insurance, and each year I shop around for the best quote and make sure they are aware I run a business and it hasn't been an issue with any insurer. 

Its an issue for most home insurers unless your business is purely clerical and you have no business visitors

pramsay13

DullGreyGuy said:

Its an issue for most home insurers unless your business is purely clerical and you have no business visitors

My business is manufacturing and I normally have around 5 to 10 business visitors a week. 
I can't speak for all insurers but in 10 years of running my business and insuring my home with almost that many insurers it's only been an issue a few times and that's normally been down to the wood building the business is conducted from. 

morgmonster

pramsay13 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Its an issue for most home insurers unless your business is purely clerical and you have no business visitors

My business is manufacturing and I normally have around 5 to 10 business visitors a week. 
I can't speak for all insurers but in 10 years of running my business and insuring my home with almost that many insurers it's only been an issue a few times and that's normally been down to the wood building the business is conducted from. 

Hopefully you won't have any problems going forward! Who are you with, sounds like I should try them! 
Yes I'm sure he understood, it said nothing but purely clerical work. I told him it was literally sewing bits of fabric together, he just said the additional risk added by a from-home business was potentially unlimited (!!!!) so wouldn't cover it. I told him I had business insurance and offered to send the details etc.

I have had a live chat with Admiral as their quote was reasonable, he gave me a number to ring and said it wouldn't be a blanket no, so that's a start. 

morgmonster

DullGreyGuy said:

Products offered directly and via brokers are not necessarily the same (and there are many brokers and intermediaries that people incorrectly call insurers) so speaking to brokers is always sensible anyway but if they're a true advisory broker they will be much more expensive than you're getting from Tesco

Admiral, if you dont mind being insured from Gibraltar, I believe are more forgiving on home businesses 

The extra expense of a broker is what I feared, with such a small turnover it's silly to let it increase our other  household expenses. I'm at a bit of a crossroads with the business anyway and earlier this year had a lot of soul searching as I was going back to work after 5 years of being a stay at home parent, I eventually decided to keep it going, so to have this curve ball has thrown me a bit.

pramsay13

This year I'm with CETA home insurance. 
Here's the bit about the home business. 

DullGreyGuy

pramsay13 said:

This year I'm with CETA home insurance. 
Here's the bit about the home business. 

CETA are a small wholesale broker with a mixture of other wholesale brokers, MGAs and Insurers on their panel specialising in non-standard home insurace... kind of inline with the comment you arent getting cover direct from mainstream insurers.

Note that the Business Use clause means that any claims for theft, vandalism etc must have evidence of violent entry which is a fairly significant concession normally only seen on budget policies or as an endorsement on those with non-family members living in the property.

morgmonster

Just wanted to update this in case anyone runs into the same problem. We came back on Saturday from a week's holiday to a letter from Tesco that they were in fact cancelling the last two weeks of our insurance, not just not renewing! They hadn't told me this on the phone. Unfortunately the week's grace they gave ended today so I had a very stressful day yesterday trying to find a new insurer (i thought I had another couple of weeks). After ringing round several cheaper insurers who wouldn't even entertain it (some with longer phone wait times than others), I tried Admiral who were happy to cover in our case but the quote increased by £400, then got an online quote with Direct line whose live chat with a real person reassured me that it shouldn't be a problem but I needed to call. The quote wasn't the cheapest but they added on the info about my business and the lodger with no extra cost so we are now covered. Phew. (I did declare that technically we'd had insurance cancelled but once they had heard the wording of the letter they were satisfied that it wasn't a problem).

DullGreyGuy

I'd personally put a complaint into Tescos about them not advising it on the phone and as a resolution ask them to confirm that you do not need to declare the cancellation in future quotes.

Normally you'd contact your insurer say you are thinking of changing X and they say if you do that we wont cover you and so you get the choice of either not changing X or you cancel the policy and change X. You never have to declare cancellations that you've done and they've effectively deprived you of the opportunity to cancel it yourself.