Do you have to tell your insurance company if you’re working from home?

During the height of the lockdown in April, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 46.6% of workers were working from home and, of these, 86.0% were doing so as a result of Coronavirus pandemic. While the Government is encouraging workers to return to the office, many professionals are still working from home and want to continue home working even after the pandemic is over.

While there are many benefits to working from home, there are also practical considerations that need to be taken into account if working from home is to continue long-term, and one of these is how it will impact your home insurance.

When choosing a home insurance policy, homeowners are faced with the choice between content insurance, building insurance or both. As the names suggest, content insurance will insure the contents within the house, while building insurance will insure the structure of the building – choosing a joint insurance policy will help the homeowner to protect both their contents and the building. Those who own a flat, or who rent a property, will likely only need content insurance, as the maintenance of the building is usually the responsibility of the landlord.

To successfully work from home, business equipment – such as laptops, computers and additional monitors – is essential, but it may not be covered by standard content insurance. Home-workers will need to check their current home contents insurance policy to ensure this extra equipment, which if provided by employers might be in addition to equipment already in the house, is covered. If the current insurance does not adequately cover this extra equipment, home workers should contact their insurance company to ensure that the policy is changed to reflect the additional equipment.

In addition to extra equipment, working from home might have to involve storing stock in the home or garage. Again, home workers need to ensure that their contents insurance covers storing the stock. For those storing a large amount of stock, a business insurance policy may be required to cover the stock in the event of theft or damage. As well as this, if the stock has flammable or hazardous material, this may require business insurance.

In addition to ensuring that the home insurance policy covers what is needed when working from home, consumers looking to reduce their monthly outgoings might want to switch home insurance providers to get a better deal. As such, when choosing the best home insurance deal, consumers should consider a range of factors, including the features available along with the cost of the policy.

To help make it easier for consumers to find the best deals on the market, we offer a full listing of all our five and four-star rated home insurance providers. Our star ratings have been objectively selected by experts at Moneyfacts who have looked at all the products on the market and chosen the ones that offer consumers the best products and features at the most competitive costs.

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