Working from home - who to tell..

In message , AC writes

In message , AC writes

Tell your wife - not sure what the response might be

Insurance company should be told

Mortgage lender - personally I wouldn't bother. As long as they continue to get paid, I cant think of a situation where not telling them could be to your detriment. They are never going to come and look at your house.

I did not bother telling the Mortgage people.

I did bother with the Insurance though as the small print on the house policy stated that any equipment used for Business would not be covered. (I took out another policy to cover the PCs etc for work)

Council providing you do not annoy the neighbours are not interested.

Hope this helps

Andy

Why?

Agreed, and even if they did, you're not doing anything wrong.

You've left out the important answer. You must tell the IR of your SE status.

So how did telling them make any difference?

OK, so if you want to insure business owned equipment you need a new policy or an extension of the existing one. However there appears to be no need to tell the insurer of the different use of the room(s).

If you were to make a claim they could say you witheld material facts from them and reduce or strike out your claim.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

For the same reason as you need to tell them if you're about to leave the property empty for a period over a month? - Perceived greater risk/liability??

wrote

Check the policy conditions small-print carefully for mention of "no business use" or "no commercial use" !

I don't buy it. If anything the risk is reduced. If you work from home it means the PC (which you have anyway, and are just happening to use for business in addition to private use), and everything else of value in the house for that matter, is at less risk because you're there "guarding" the property instead of exposing it to the risk of burglary while you're out working.

I could understand their concern if there were any question of you claiming consequential damage, such as loss of business income arising from loss of use of your equipment while it gets replaced and data restored from backup, but without explicit cover for that specific evenuality, you would only be claiming replacement cost of the kit.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

Perhaps (even if the "business kit" isn't even covered by the insurance), it might attract burglars more readily to your house - who would then also take your telly & video etc (which are covered) ?

Perhaps, before you go out you lock-up very carefully - but when you are at home ("working/guarding") you might leave windows open, the front door not dead-locked, even the back door open - and it only takes a minute or two while you are paying a visit to the bathroom ...

No, as I implied, there would be no additional business kit as such. It would simply be a matter of happening to make business use of kit already there for personal use.

However, typical policies do not seek to disallow all cover if you should happen to work at home, they just disallow contents claims in respect of items actually used for a business purpose.

The intended meaning is unclear where an item has mixed use.

Not me.

Perhaps, but they're too high up for anyone to climb in.

It never is anyway.

No.

Now you're taking the piss.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

... and therefore, there would be greater knowledge that the kit *exists* at that address (everyone in contact through the business will now know this).

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"Ronald Raygun" wrote: > Not me.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote: > It never is anyway.

Do you also have a sign up saying "Rob me here"?! :-(

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

No, quite the opposite - getting rid of it!

No, probably lives somewhere like us where burglars are rare. We do lock up when we leave the house but we have been known to forget. I've even left the key in the front door overnight sometimes by mistake (I put it there when I want to get in and out frequently).

Because by telling them they replied by telling me about the small print not covering equipment used for Business purposes.

A realistic alternative would be reading through all the fine print yourself then making up your own mind as to the validity of your insurance. I chose to get the Insurance Company to do the work for me, then send me a letter confirming the point. Insurance is not my field of expertise (nor really of any real interest providing I am legal)

Neither the original insurers not any of the others I have had quote over the years were remotely interested in the fact that I worked from home (as I was only running an office). Tolson Messenger who specialise in SOHO insurance claimed to give lower House Contents premiums for Home Workers but when compared to others the figures did not come true.

Andy

One can get cover for a home-based business - a number of insurers offer it. I would contact a few commercial insce brokers out of the yellow pages.

I used to have such a policy with Commercial Union, years ago.

Planning permission is something else... have to keep a low profile. If your car is too flash compared with the neighbour's, he might call the local authority. I had this too. My venture lasted about 3 years, after which we were beginning to get a bit exposed but we moved anyway...

wrote

Where was it you said you live again, address please? :-)

One's servants keep the riff raff out don't you know.

Nowhere really outlandish, a village in South Suffolk. Ipswich (our nearest town) has the lowest insurance rates in England I believe.

insurance. As long as you're not using a whole room for business then you shouldn't incur business rates -

If you're starting a business then you need to tell the IR and pay self-employed stamp.