Home insurance is an absolute must for anyone who owns his or her own home. It can effectively afford you a degree of protection should anything ever happen to your home and its contents. However, if you work from home or have your own home-based business then you need a little something extra – home business insurance.
Regular home insurance does not cover you for business equipment either in or outside of the home because it is for commercial rather than personal use. However, you are unlikely to need full business insurance because the scale of the business is contained within your own home and thus will not suit your needs. Home business insurance should fit your needs, but there is key information that you need to know before exploring your policy options.
There are several elements that are included in home business insurance or business home owners insurance but not in regular home insurance. For example, you won’t only need to cover your own equipment; you will also need to provide cover for any items belonging to others that may be kept on your premises. This element will cover you throughout the duration of your policy in case of loss theft or damage. Business home owners insurances policies also usually offer you the option of selecting personal liability cover as well. That is designed to protect you should any of the individuals that visit your house for meeting and appointments have an accident and decide to sue. This is definitely not covered in home insurance but, because of the suing culture that we live in, is a must if you have people related to your business over on a regular basis.
Home business insurance or business home owners insurance tends to cover over and above the items listed below:
1. It effectively increases the limit that you can claim as far more personal property is actually covered under home business insurance. In short, the amount you can claim per year will significantly increase.
2. Some home insurance policies don’t cover personal property away from home but business home owners insurance does, and effectively increases the amount of cover you have if it does happen to be covered under your home insurance.
3. If you have home business insurance then any credit card coverage on that policy will cover your business card as well as your personal one. Home insurance policies only cover personal cards.
4. There is a specific amount of cover in place for property that is in your home but does not belong to you.
5. Your business accounts are also covered. There will be a limit put on the amount payable, but should your accounts be destroyed then you won’t actually lose out.
6. The personal liability coverage, as mentioned above, covers personal injury, any products produced and incidental contractual ability.
Home insurance does not cover business but business home owners insurance does cover your household. Your existing home insurance company may offer home business insurance, in which case it may just be possible to upgrade. When you weight the risks against the cover though, this home business insurance does make sense.
