Home Based Professional
Home Based Professional Insurance is a package of insurance covers (including public and employer's liability) designed to protect your home based business against financial loss.
There is currently an estimated 3.5 million home working professionals in UK and is set to rise to 5 million over the next 18 months.
Key Features
Home working professionals can be broadly split into 2 groups:
- Home based business
- Company employees working from home
The vast majority of insurers distinguish between personal and business activities, a specific policy needs to be effected to cover all business related equipment, whether or not you are a home based business or a company employee working from home.
Who is it for?
Primarily home based professionals:
- Accountants
- Consultants and Surveyors
- Architects
- Lawyers
- Graphic Designers
- Marketing related activities
- Recruitment businesses etc.
However this policy also provides cover in the following additional sectors:
- Retail related
- Entertainment and Leisure
- Consultants and Surveyors
- Health and Beauty
For Building and Construction related occupations and General Tradesmen please visit our self employed area for comparative quotations.
Benefits
- Legal requirement - If you have employees you have a legal obligation to have Employer's Liability cover
- Public liability cover - Cover for your dealings with the public or those you trade with including people visiting your premises. This section also provides cover for working at third party sites
- Cover for business related contents - Computers, furniture, portable equipment including laptops and stock etc
- Policy documents immediately - You can receive your insurance documents seconds after buying insurance through our system
- Additional insurance - Business Interruption, Loss of money Personal Accident and Travel cover can also be added to your policies
- Peace of mind - your business is covered, leaving you to get on with running it!
Things to watch out for
- Existing Home Insurance - Many think an existing standard household policy will cover home offices and associated contents together with business liability insurance. This is not the case.
- Limit of Indemnity - Some insurers will quote you a public liability cover from £1m to £5m. You may only need £1m of cover. However if you do need £5m of public liability cover, make sure you get the right quote
- Office Contents - Make sure you value your contents accurately and select the correct level of indemnity under the policy. Remember if you are underinsured insurers will not pay 100% of your claim
- Excess - make sure you check the level of excess (the amount you pay in the event of a claim) under the policy. Some policies have a minimum excess of £500 whilst others can be as low as £50
- Working outside UK - some insurers won't cover you if you do any of your work outside the United Kingdom, others will extend coverage to the boundaries of EU and beyond, so check the small print.
- Portable equipment - Some policies exclude cover for portable equipment, therefore if you require cover for laptops etc, make sure there is appropriate cover under the policy
- Business Interruption - Should you suffer a large loss, policies have provision to provide payment to get the business back up and running, at a relatively low additional premium.
- Additional covers available - Stock, Personal Accident and Annual Travel and Professional Indemnity
What are the next steps?
- Know your business - Ensure you inform the insurer with as much information as possible so they can provide you with the most competitive quotation. Make sure to answer all questions on the online form
- Wages and turnover - Knowing your total wage roll and estimated turnover will help if you have them
- Start date - Insurance prices change frequently, evaluate your desired start date, you may wish to have the insurance start at the beginning of a particular project
- Compare insurers - check the type of cover you want by comparing a number of insurers to see if the policy that is being offered is being offered at the right price and degree of cover, and try and use someone who can offer you quotes from more than one insurer
Compare Quotes
Compare, Decide, Buy
Frequently asked questions
Am I covered for the provision of advice?
Not unless you buy a specific Professional Indemnity policy. Some policies offer Professional Indemnity as part of the policy package, if you need cover for the provision of advice to customers, check it is specifically covered.
What happens if my laptop is stolen?
Some insurers cover this as standard, others as an optional extra. Check your cover and make a claim by telephoning your insurer direct and quote your policy reference
I don't recognise the Insurer name
You may not immediately recognise some of these insurers, specialist insurers tend to deal only through brokers and don't sell direct to the public. All the insurers we work with are regulated and authorised by the Financial Services Authority, the UK's regulatory body.
Do I need Employer's Liability?
If you have employees, the answer is usually yes. If you are a single person company, the answer is usually no.
Can I include my household business with my business insurance policy?
This depends as different insurers provide different types of cover, however yes this is possible.