Home bakery insurance

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Why do you need home bakery insurance?

They say most businesses start at the kitchen table, and yours is the proof in the pudding. Love, care and attention to detail put you a cut above, but even experienced bakers can have a slip-up or two. Home baking insurance takes care of the risks you face, letting you focus on your next show stopper.

  • home baking insurance that’s UK-specific
  • cover for what you need like your products, stock and equipment
  • peace of mind, knowing your hard work is covered if a crisis hits

What does home bakery insurance cover?

We’ll start with public liability insurance for home bakers, covering you against accidents in your kitchen or claims against your product – for example, if someone chips a tooth on a cake decoration you’ve used. From there, you can add bakers’ insurance for stock and equipment, plus employers’ liability cover if you’ve hired any help.

  • Public liability insurance

    In case your baking business and products cause injuries or property damage.

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your home baking business.

  • Tools insurance

    In case something happens to your baking kit.

  • Stock insurance

    In case something happens to your ingredients or materials.

  • Business and office equipment insurance

    In case something happens to the equipment you use to run your business.

  • Legal expenses insurance

    In case you have to pay legal costs while running your home baking business.

  • Personal accident insurance

    In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident – at work, or elsewhere.

  • Public liability insurance

    In case your baking business and products cause injuries or property damage.

    What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for home bakers?

    Claims against your business for:

    • damage to someone’s property, because of your home baking business
    • an injury or illness caused by your business activities or products
    • accidental damage or injuries caused by your employees

    If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

    For example:

    • you stain a client’s clothes when they come to pick up their order
    • some pastries you’ve prepared for a client’s team meeting cause a case of food poisoning
    • a client cuts their finger on a crate containing their order

    Read more about public liability insurance

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your home baking business.

    What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

    Claims against your business for:

    • an injury or illness that happens as a result of working for you (including temps and casual workers)

    **Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

    For example:

    • your Christmas temp burns themselves while taking a tray of biscuits out of the oven
    • one of your team slips on the wet kitchen floor, breaking their arm

  • Tools insurance

    In case something happens to your baking kit.

    What’s typically covered by tools insurance?

    • the specialist tools you use for baking, like handheld or portable electronic equipment
    • loss, damage or theft

    For example:

    • you drop and smash a set of piping tools
    • your employee breaks part of your mixer while cleaning down for the day

    Read more about tools insurance

  • Stock insurance

    In case something happens to your ingredients or materials.

    What’s typically covered by stock insurance for home bakers?

    • loss, damage or theft of things like your fresh ingredients, specialist flours or packaging materials

    For example:

    • your stock of exotic fruit, prepped coulis and other ingredients go bad, due to a faulty freezer
    • a fire destroys your pantry, including a recent bulk order of specialist flours, spices and other dried goods

    Read more about stock insurance

  • Business and office equipment insurance

    In case something happens to the equipment you use to run your business.

    What’s typically covered by business equipment insurance?

    • theft of the equipment you use to operate as a home baker, from your laptop to your new blender
    • loss of your equipment
    • flood, fire or accidental damage

    For example:

    • a flood in your kitchen damages essential appliances and equipment, including a freezer
    • while preparing ingredients, your temp breaks an expensive food processor, delaying orders for the next day

    Read more about business and office equipment insurance

  • Legal expenses insurance

    In case you have to pay legal costs while running your home baking business.

    What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?

    • legal costs associated with day-to-day operations, like an employee dispute
    • property damage, nuisance or trespass and associated legal costs
    • HMRC, tax and compliance issues, if they come up
    • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline and crisis support to help you protect your reputation, as a popular home bake

    For example:

    • your client is refusing to pay the balance for an order, and you need to raise a legal case
    • a temp you’ve hired for the busy Christmas season brings an employment case against you

    Read more about legal expenses insurance

  • Personal accident insurance

    In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident – at work, or elsewhere.

    What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

    • injury or death of anyone you’ve chosen to cover in your policy – whether this happens at work or elsewhere
    • lost income, hospital bills or other medical costs associated with the accident

    For example:

    • you break a finger while playing football with the kids, keeping you off work for two weeks
    • a temp you’ve covered catches their hand in one of your mixers, causing a serious injury

    Read more about personal accident insurance

How much does home bakery insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £4.74 per month

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The price is for up to £2 million of public liability insurance – 10% of customers paid £56.82 or less annually between 1st Jan – 31st May 2024. Equivalent to £4.74 a month (and excludes the extra costs for paying monthly). 76% of customers have a £1 million limit and 24% £2 million. If you complete a quote, more types of cover will be available. These all have additional costs.

Example home baker quotes, real prices

axa

£7.32 /month

£53.24 /year

A self-employed part-time baker who creates cakes for small occasions

  • Less than 1 years’ experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Milton Keynes

Public liability

£1,000,000

Employers’ liability

Not included

Tools

Not included

£24.90 /month

£221.36 /year

A small family-run home baker business, providing baked goods for all occasions (weddings, birthdays, small conferences, etc)

  • 5+ years’ experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 employees
  • Based in Southampton

Public liability

£1,000,000

Employers’ liability

£10,000,000

Tools

£5,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 06/03/2023). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

£100

£2500

Employers’ liability

No excess

No excess

Tools

£60

£500

Stock

£100

£500

Business equipment

£50

£750

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

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How do I choose insurance for home bakeries?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

  • Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

  • Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

  • Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

  • Does home bakery insurance cover my work correctly?

  • Do I need cover for other types of work?

  • Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

  • Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

    Make sure you cover the total cost of replacing all your tools or you’ll only get a proportion of your claim paid out if something happens to them. Learn about tool cover.

  • Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

    Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

    If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

    Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

  • Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

    Depending on what you use to do your work, you may need other covers.

    You may need more than tools insurance – for example, business equipment insurance if you have a work laptop, plant insurance if you use machinery.

  • Does home bakery insurance cover my work correctly?

    Make sure you’re picking the right cover to protect you properly. It’s important to know that if you have another trade or job, you’ll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider private tutor insurance or private chef insurance ?

  • Do I need cover for other types of work?

    If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

    Other types of insurance

  • Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

    Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am – 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am – 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am – 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am – 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am – 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am – 02.00pm

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0333 043 8527

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Contact us on our website whenever suits you

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FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.

£51 million in claims paid out in 2023

83% of claims were settled in 2023

The figure above is rounded across our range of products. “Settled” covers paid, declined or withdrawn. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis. Our specialist partner Sedgwick will pay the claims on behalf of the insurer. Reviewed on 24/04/2024.

Example home bakery insurance claim

Having home baking insurance through Simply Business has saved businesses thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Pat saved more than £3,600.00

A fire in Pat’s (not her real name) recycling bin at the back of her property caused extensive damage to her kitchen’s double doors, roof and guttering. Her stock was also damaged by the emergency services team when putting the fire out.

Insurance payout

£3,638.93

Covering the cost of fire and water damage

Insurance payout

Covering the cost of fire and water damage

Covering the cost of fire and water damage

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

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Home bakery insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about home bakers insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

Even if it’s a side hustle and you’re only taking a few orders here and there, your home baking business carries risks – to you and your customers, as well as suppliers and employees, if you have any, and anyone visiting you at home.

Public liability insurance for home bakers, as well as product liability, can cover you if someone makes a claim against you for injury or damage. For example, someone falls ill after eating a pastry you’ve sold, and holds you responsible.

You can also add stock and tools insurance, for your essential kit and supplies, plus employers’ liability cover, which is usually a legal requirement if anyone is directly working for you.

Insurance is a priority for most food and drink or catering companies, and home bakers are no exception to the risks faced in this sector.

If you’re selling to the public, product and public liability insurance for home bakers can cover you for all sorts of accidents and injuries. Do you sell pastries to local businesses, for example, for meetings and away days? If a customer became ill after eating your product – even worse, their whole team – you could face a damaging compensation claim.

Having this cover in place lets you get on with managing orders and doing what you do best – creating amazing bakes – not worrying over the what-ifs.

We’ve put a bit more detail in the first two FAQs, but just like a home bakes business, home-based cake decorators may find insurance handy. It can cover you for risks like a product causing injury, or something happening to your stock and equipment.

Remember, if you employ anyone, even from home, employers’ liability insurance is usually a legal requirement.

Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 043 8527 to update your policy before you take on this new work. If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

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