Home insurance inc work from home & visitors

ohglobbits

Hi all. I'm looking to start some car mechanic work at home on my drive. My current insurance will not cover this as it will include the owners of the vehicles coming to my property - not into it but onto it (the driveway).

I currently pay c£200 for home & contents but from the brokers I have spoken to this will shoot up to £560+ due to the vistiors! And I'd still want to get public liability insurance and tools cover to cover any possible issues in terms of the work itself... another £260. Are these actually reasonable prices in anyones experience or should I expect less?

I'm trying to get my head around what I need and what order I need to do things in...
- when I register as self employed, I will need to put the address down...
- and does this then mean my current insurance is void as that address is now officially registered to a self employed business?

- can I get public liability on its own without needing the upgraded home insurance first - are they standalone?
- If I can't afford the £560 could I just get REGULAR contents only insurance (without buildings insurance) and still be covered regardless of the visitors, or does contents costs also go up due to the added 'risk'?

Any advice is greatly welcome. Thank you

DullGreyGuy

Have you looked at all the other aspects like if planning permission is going to be required for change of use? You'd have a snowballs chance in hell around here with the idea unless you've a massive drive capable of parking many vehicles. 

Most insurers won't entertain business customers coming on site nor storage of any business paraphernalia beyond a laptop etc. As such you are down to a small pool so less competition will mean higher prices and so an uplift of 150% isn't shocking.  You can't avoid it full by having independent liability and tools insurance but may be able to partially reduce it with the same, thats something a broker would need to deal with an insurer that doesn't just use straight through processing which means higher costs as you have humans involved not just preprogrammed computers.

As soon as my business stopped fitting into the SME stuff you can do online my business insurance went from £400 to £1,200 and that is an outlier, most companies were quoting more like £5,000

400ixl

As said you may well need change of use which bring business taxes, the need to have a sign on the property for the business etc.

Its not just a case of going self employed and getting som insurance when you will be running a customer business on site such as engineering.

XRS200

Wouldn't you need motor trade cover, such as road risks?

35har1old

400ixl said:

As said you may well need change of use which bring business taxes, the need to have a sign on the property for the business etc.

Its not just a case of going self employed and getting som insurance when you will be running a customer business on site such as engineering.

You lease might not let you to run a business and do you have a mortgage they would need to be consulted if you do

ohglobbits

@DullGreyGuy I have to say I haven't come across anything like changing the property use or getting planning permission when I've been looking. I've been on websites specific for different types of mechanic work at home and on other sites like actual garages.

I called up and went through exactly what I'd be doing and where, and was told I should get public liability and tools cover. 

@XRS200 The motor trade cover would only be a legal requirement if I was driving the vehicle which I'm not - the customer will park it up on the drive and when they come back after the work is done they can test drive it. 

I would only do one car at time a this is more of a hobby on my days off whilst working full time elsewhere. 

@400ixl re business rates, I was told a is only be working on the driveway which is a small portion of the home I wouldn't need to pay. I hope this is correct! 

Part of what I'm trying to establish is not just what I need but what order it can be done in.  Like can I register for self employment now whilst still looking for the best insurance deals? Or will registering automatically void my home insurance before I've upgraded it, because the home address would then be associated with work? 

BarelySentientAI

ohglobbits said:

@DullGreyGuy I have to say I haven't come across anything like changing the property use or getting planning permission when I've been looking. I've been on websites specific for different types of mechanic work at home and on other sites like actual garages.

I called up and went through exactly what I'd be doing and where, and was told I should get public liability and tools cover. 

@XRS200 The motor trade cover would only be a legal requirement if I was driving the vehicle which I'm not - the customer will park it up on the drive and when they come back after the work is done they can test drive it. 

I would only do one car at time a this is more of a hobby on my days off whilst working full time elsewhere. 

@400ixl re business rates, I was told a is only be working on the driveway which is a small portion of the home I wouldn't need to pay. I hope this is correct! 

Part of what I'm trying to establish is not just what I need but what order it can be done in.  Like can I register for self employment now whilst still looking for the best insurance deals? Or will registering automatically void my home insurance before I've upgraded it, because the home address would then be associated with work? 

Registering the business but not actually doing any trading shouldn't cause a problem with the existing insurance.

The other thing I've come across is that there are covenants on deeds saying that there should not be certain sorts of business operated from the premises - but that's not an insurance question.

DullGreyGuy

ohglobbits said:

@DullGreyGuy I have to say I haven't come across anything like changing the property use or getting planning permission when I've been looking. I've been on websites specific for different types of mechanic work at home and on other sites like actual garages.

I called up and went through exactly what I'd be doing and where, and was told I should get public liability and tools cover. 

@XRS200 The motor trade cover would only be a legal requirement if I was driving the vehicle which I'm not - the customer will park it up on the drive and when they come back after the work is done they can test drive it. 

I would only do one car at time a this is more of a hobby on my days off whilst working full time elsewhere. 

@400ixl re business rates, I was told a is only be working on the driveway which is a small portion of the home I wouldn't need to pay. I hope this is correct! 

Part of what I'm trying to establish is not just what I need but what order it can be done in.  Like can I register for self employment now whilst still looking for the best insurance deals? Or will registering automatically void my home insurance before I've upgraded it, because the home address would then be associated with work? 

You can register for self employment at any time you want, you must have registered for it by the October (double check that as its been a while since I checked) after you have past a financial year end and generate over than £1,000 revenue. 

The reality is that many people do things with good intentions and out of ignorance or anything else dont follow every rule they should. Once had a 6 figure house fire claim declined because someone was running a mini-hairdresser from home and hadn't told their insurer. Plenty of people have built home offices in their back gardens at big expense with heating, electrics etc for a neighbour to complain and the person be told it has to be torn down. 

Land/a premises has permitted use, home are residential, shops etc have many more classifications on if they have to be retail or could also be a cafe or an artist studio selling products etc. As per a poster last week they were looking at ex-school and ex-chapels wanting to make a home but need planning permission. 

Councils vary a LOT... we wanted to do a once a month dinner, people pay "what they think it's worth", no alcohol is sold. Our council requires full food safety inspection and all the requirements of a commercial kitchen (eg separate handwashing and non-handwashing sinks), if we lived 2 miles down the road then because its only once a month we'd have to do nothing. 

Anything that brings additional traffic, parking etc tends to be a straight no unless there is a carpark here. Again, many will just do it and get on ok with their neighbours such they dont report them. However there is a post on here from 2 weeks ago of someone asking how to report someone for doing mechanics services outside their home. 

ohglobbits

@35har1old i own the home with a mortgage.  I haven't come across anything in regards to letting the mortgage company know about business use - may I ask why this would be relevant to them? 

@BarelySentientAI Thats what i was wondering, i just want to get things in place but the insurance is taking so long to sort i wondered if i could at least get registered ahead of time....
If there are covenants, would they be found on the title deed? 

DullGreyGuy

ohglobbits said:

@35har1old i own the home with a mortgage.  I haven't come across anything in regards to letting the mortgage company know about business use - may I ask why this would be relevant to them? 

@BarelySentientAI Thats what i was wondering, i just want to get things in place but the insurance is taking so long to sort i wondered if i could at least get registered ahead of time....
If there are covenants, would they be found on the title deed? 

It can be of interest to mortgage companies but more commonly if it needs a change of permissions. Leasehold or renting is much more complex. 

Most pieces you can do independently, when you need to do each piece will depend on when you start trading rather than each other. 

Convenants will be on deeds.

BarelySentientAI

ohglobbits said:

@35har1old i own the home with a mortgage.  I haven't come across anything in regards to letting the mortgage company know about business use - may I ask why this would be relevant to them? 

@BarelySentientAI Thats what i was wondering, i just want to get things in place but the insurance is taking so long to sort i wondered if i could at least get registered ahead of time....
If there are covenants, would they be found on the title deed? 

Referenced there, yes, but they can take many forms.

Some can be very restrictive, such as 

"Not to use the Property for any purpose other than as or incidental to one private residential dwelling and not to use the Property for any trade or business"
 '..No trade or business shall at time be set up or carried on in or upon the land hereby transferred or any part thereof..' 

Others less so, and refer specifically to things like not selling ale or running an 'immoral' business.