Insuring a home-based business

Many Canadians operate businesses from their homes. What they may not know is how this affects their home insurance. If employees or clients are coming into the home for business purposes, the business owner may not be covered under their standard home insurance policy for liability.

Even if you have a part-time home business, you should consider home-based business insurance to make sure you and your business property are covered.

How do I insure my home-based business?

Home-based business coverage is available as an extension of your home insurance. If your business is larger than the typical one to two-person home-based business operation, you may need to consider standard business insurance. Your Co-operators agent will be able to advise you as to what you need for your particular situation.

Benefits of a home-based business insurance plan

A home-based business insurance plan will cover your office equipment, business inventory on and off-premise and business interruption insurance if anything were to happen to your home because of an insured loss. Most importantly, it will cover you for additional liability for clients, delivery personnel and employees.

Should I insure my home-based business?

This really depends on what your business activities are. If you have a lot of high-value equipment and no clients or employees coming to your house, it may be less expensive for you to add your equipment to your existing home coverage as an additional endorsement.

If you do work for the government or other high-profile agencies such as working as an author, event organizer, HR consultant, marketing consultant, translator or for a non-profit organization, you may want to consider Errors & Omissions insurance, which is required for some contracts.

If you have visitors to your home for business purposes, or you have to cover business inventory, you’ll want home-based business coverage. If you don’t have these added risks, you probably don’t need it. Your insurance agent will be able to advise you on the best course of action.