Home insurance - am I self-employed or retired?

JH1249

I play the piano. I am self employed but very part time.
I work away from home 4 hours a week excluding travelling and towards the end of each term I have maybe 10 music exam students come separately to my home (they are escorted in and out) and I have separate public liability insurance.
So I want to tick retired 'cos I'm home more often than away but I have to tick that the home is used for business. 
They allow this combo - retired and business-use but I'm concerned it it might be viewed as dishonest. 
This business used is costing me £80 - £100 pa and some are refusing to insure us.

Any thoughts? You can probably tell I'm frustrated and feel this broad-brush approach is costing me! 
.

dunstonh

You are self employed and you need to declare you are work from home with visitors to your property.

You are not retired as you have earnings by means of self employment.

Mark_d

You are self employed - working part time.  There are usually other questions are when/how often the property is unoccupied.

I would recommend NFU Mutual for home insurance.  I get the quote/discuss renewal over the phone, so you can ask anything you're unsure of.

DullGreyGuy

JH1249 said:

I play the piano. I am self employed but very part time.
I work away from home 4 hours a week excluding travelling and towards the end of each term I have maybe 10 music exam students come separately to my home (they are escorted in and out) and I have separate public liability insurance.
So I want to tick retired 'cos I'm home more often than away but I have to tick that the home is used for business. 
They allow this combo - retired and business-use but I'm concerned it it might be viewed as dishonest. 
This business used is costing me £80 - £100 pa and some are refusing to insure us.

Any thoughts? You can probably tell I'm frustrated and feel this broad-brush approach is costing me! 
.

I'm surprised it's not most are refusing to insure you given you have visitors to your home. 

Even if you ticked you are retired and then added a part time job (or commit fraud and dont) you would still need to declare the commercial use of the property and that is what the insurers arent going to be liking not the fact you have job. 

JH1249

Fair enough. Thanks all.

I think the 20% increase in premium is OTT and shopping around is giving me higher premiums or refusals.
Physios are one example that comes to mind -but they're likely to have visitors 48+ weeks of the year, me 6.

DullGreyGuy

JH1249 said:

Fair enough. Thanks all.

I think the 20% increase in premium is OTT and shopping around is giving me higher premiums or refusals.
Physios are one example that comes to mind -but they're likely to have visitors 48+ weeks of the year, me 6.

There are plenty of examples from those with visitors inc hairdressers etc and those doing small scale home manufacturing like the post a couple of weeks ago on making bath bombs. 

Better to declare it and pay the premiums than be uninsured, did have a major fire loss where on inspection of the home it was discovered the spare room/office was being used to store hair care products for their off site salon. Losses were estimated at £150k, total cost of claim was £5k for the loss adjustor who repudiated the claim for reckless non-disclosure of the business activities at the home. FOS upheld the decision.