Home Insurance with Business Use

Phaver71

Hi 
I'm trying to avoid losing several hours of my life ringing my home insurance company, has anyone experience of or can anyone advise on the following?

I run a small, one to one part time dog grooming business from our detached garage. I have business insurance in place for it. Our home insurance is due for renewal with the statement 'Nothing is sold, manufactured, repaired or restored from your home' as a stipulation of them insuring us with business use notified.

My query is, does providing a service qualify as 'sold' or would that be referring to physical items which would be classed as stock?

retiredbanker1

You need to advise the insurer of the business.

E.G. Someone visits your home and gets bitten by a dog - do you have insurance for that - or if the dogs run amok causing spillage etc??

They will also IMO increase your premium as there is a greater risk of a claim with you having a business than without.

user1977

Phaver71 said:

I run a small, one to one part time dog grooming business from our detached garage. I have business insurance in place for it. Our home insurance is due for renewal with the statement 'Nothing is sold, manufactured, repaired or restored from your home' as a stipulation of them insuring us with business use notified.

My query is, does providing a service qualify as 'sold' or would that be referring to physical items which would be classed as stock?

So you have notified them of the nature of your business? If so then I don't see an issue, you aren't selling "things", you're selling a service.

DullGreyGuy

Phaver71 said:

Hi 
I'm trying to avoid losing several hours of my life ringing my home insurance company, has anyone experience of or can anyone advise on the following?

I run a small, one to one part time dog grooming business from our detached garage. I have business insurance in place for it. Our home insurance is due for renewal with the statement 'Nothing is sold, manufactured, repaired or restored from your home' as a stipulation of them insuring us with business use notified.

My query is, does providing a service qualify as 'sold' or would that be referring to physical items which would be classed as stock?

What classes of business insurance do you have?

Have you read the police book about it? Most will have something like Direct Line's exclusion:

Any home used for trade, professional or business purposes, except for clerical business use.

Which makes it very clear that your home wouldn't be insured.

Ultimately if you are in any doubt at all then check with the insurer in question, have seen more than one claim declined because people were using their home for undeclared business use. In one case it was a major fire that gutted the whole house but they got nothing at all as they were using the spare bedroom to store hair products for their salon.

user1977 said:

Phaver71 said:

I run a small, one to one part time dog grooming business from our detached garage. I have business insurance in place for it. Our home insurance is due for renewal with the statement 'Nothing is sold, manufactured, repaired or restored from your home' as a stipulation of them insuring us with business use notified.

My query is, does providing a service qualify as 'sold' or would that be referring to physical items which would be classed as stock?

So you have notified them of the nature of your business? If so then I don't see an issue, you aren't selling "things", you're selling a service.

Where does it state that the selling is only related to physical products?

user1977

DullGreyGuy said:

user1977 said:

Phaver71 said:

I run a small, one to one part time dog grooming business from our detached garage. I have business insurance in place for it. Our home insurance is due for renewal with the statement 'Nothing is sold, manufactured, repaired or restored from your home' as a stipulation of them insuring us with business use notified.

My query is, does providing a service qualify as 'sold' or would that be referring to physical items which would be classed as stock?

So you have notified them of the nature of your business? If so then I don't see an issue, you aren't selling "things", you're selling a service.

Where does it state that the selling is only related to physical products?

The OP isn't selling intangible products either, they're providing a service. Unless you think they're "selling" a service - in which case, what types of business use are covered if it neither covers selling products nor providing services?

cw8825

user1977 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

user1977 said:

Phaver71 said:

I run a small, one to one part time dog grooming business from our detached garage. I have business insurance in place for it. Our home insurance is due for renewal with the statement 'Nothing is sold, manufactured, repaired or restored from your home' as a stipulation of them insuring us with business use notified.

My query is, does providing a service qualify as 'sold' or would that be referring to physical items which would be classed as stock?

So you have notified them of the nature of your business? If so then I don't see an issue, you aren't selling "things", you're selling a service.

Where does it state that the selling is only related to physical products?

The OP isn't selling intangible products either, they're providing a service. Unless you think they're "selling" a service - in which case, what types of business use are covered if it neither covers selling products nor providing services?

I would read it as the OP is selling from the property
the business sells the service of dog grooming

The policy wording provided - Any home used for trade, professional or business purposes, except for clerical business use.
Does not make mention of selling. To me it does not cover any business apart from admin as the risk is so little.

OP would need to make insurers aware of the dog grooming service

Phaver71

Thanks for all your comments. I managed to get onto their chat portal this morning to clarify. The statement does not apply to services, only items being sold. They are fully aware of the business and its nature and have been since day one, there is no change to the policy needed and no increase in premium. As I said in my post, I have business insurance, that covers all aspects of pet services and dog grooming, including public liability insurance.

No need to worry about dog's running amok in a 4m x 3m secure detached garage designed to cater for wet dogs!   

DullGreyGuy

Phaver71 said:

Thanks for all your comments. I managed to get onto their chat portal this morning to clarify. The statement does not apply to services, only items being sold. They are fully aware of the business and its nature and have been since day one, there is no change to the policy needed and no increase in premium. As I said in my post, I have business insurance, that covers all aspects of pet services and dog grooming, including public liability insurance.

No need to worry about dog's running amok in a 4m x 3m secure detached garage designed to cater for wet dogs!   

Which insurer is it?