Insurance for business stock at home

[rob roberts]

Hello everybody,
Having sold my main high street shop, I am concentrating on my online shops.
Can anybody recommend a company or broker that will cover the business stock I hold at home?
Circa £10 to £15k worth of stock, no items of high value over £100.
I have no staff and don't need employer liability, public liability ( never any visitors) or professional indemnity.
Can't believe how difficult it is proving to get even a quote, Admiral only cover up to £5k, AXA only cover admin work at home, and Direct Line won't quote as one of the items I sell is miniature clocks (cost price a tenner!)
Happy to combine the insurance with normal buildings and contents, or to cover seperately.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[Alan]

I'm no expert ( when I ran online from home, I decided to self insure my stock ( i.e take the risk ) , not because of the premium, but because of the security measures they required me to take, basically building a new roof!)

You could try http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/insurance/online-retailers/ or contact a specialist broker.

 

[Iain_Henderson]

Hi, highly recommend David, or his daughter in law Julie at Phoenix

http://www.phoenix-finance.co.uk/about_us.html

I've been getting combined home and business insurance from them for years.

PS be totally honest so you are actually covered should you need to make a claim!

 

[14Steve14]

I found the cheapest way was to contact our home insurers. All I had to do was to add some extra security to the garage door as that is where all the stock is kept. The increase was really small compared to the extortionate quotes I was getting with a separate policy.

 

[Alan]

Nice one - let us know the home insurer

 

[antropy]

I'm no expert ( when I ran online from home, I decided to self insure my stock ( i.e take the risk )

I agree with this really. Unless you're storing £50k plus in a garage that's not attached to the house?

Also CCTV and alarms are pretty cheap these days.

 

[14Steve14]

Nice one - let us know the home insurer

Saga

 

[Moggie77]

Hello everybody,
Having sold my main high street shop, I am concentrating on my online shops.
Can anybody recommend a company or broker that will cover the business stock I hold at home?
Circa £10 to £15k worth of stock, no items of high value over £100.
I have no staff and don't need employer liability, public liability ( never any visitors) or professional indemnity.
Can't believe how difficult it is proving to get even a quote, Admiral only cover up to £5k, AXA only cover admin work at home, and Direct Line won't quote as one of the items I sell is miniature clocks (cost price a tenner!)
Happy to combine the insurance with normal buildings and contents, or to cover seperately.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Having the same issue! Ridiculous really. The limit seems to be 5k. I have no visitors either. Huge gap in the market for insurers which is not being covered! The only option is to insure the stock separately.

 

[Mr D]

Having the same issue! Ridiculous really. The limit seems to be 5k. I have no visitors either. Huge gap in the market for insurers which is not being covered! The only option is to insure the stock separately.

Business opportunity for you there then, providing cover in the gap.

Would not say its a huge gap, storing over £5k in the house isn't practical for some businesses and storage outside the house can be found in most areas.

 

[Moggie77]

Would not say its a huge gap, storing over £5k in the house isn't practical for some businesses and storage outside the house can be found in most areas.[/QUOTE]
For some businesses, it is the only option as storage costs are high and not always an option if there are no storage units close by. Also, insuring stock in storage units can also be a problem.

 

[rob roberts]

Moggie, I eventually sorted it, try www.Allianzebroker.co.uk, I got just the cover i needed with them at a very reasonable cost.

 

[Moggie77]

Thank you so much @rob roberts ! I will contact them!

 

[pelparc]

self insure my stock ( i.e take the risk )

Could this effect/ invalidate your home insurance as i am sure they ask about running a business and if you have stock at home, with many then withdrawing cover if you do.

 

[rob roberts]

The whole thing was a minefield to sort out. I switched home insurers as well as getting seperate business stock cover. The irony is that most of the home insurers look on it as a far higher risk if you are working from home and have stock there too, despite the fact I am here 24/7 looking after the place, whereas before the property was unoccupied between 8am and 6pm!

 

[Mr D]

For some businesses, it is the only option as storage costs are high and not always an option if there are no storage units close by. Also, insuring stock in storage units can also be a problem.[/QUOTE]

The storage places I have had quotes from all arranged internal insurance if the customer does not want to use external insurance. I'm paying about a couple of pounds a week on insurance for around 2100 cubic feet of storage.

Its just a lot of stock to hold at home. There are other methods of holding stock.

 

[Mr D]

The whole thing was a minefield to sort out. I switched home insurers as well as getting seperate business stock cover. The irony is that most of the home insurers look on it as a far higher risk if you are working from home and have stock there too, despite the fact I am here 24/7 looking after the place, whereas before the property was unoccupied between 8am and 6pm!

While risk of robbery goes down, do other risks not go up?

 

[rob roberts]

No doubt they do, but I think the property is much safer occupied rather than empty.

 

[Mr D]

No doubt they do, but I think the property is much safer occupied rather than empty.

Agreed - and I work from home currently. With a little stock at home for which I pay a few pounds a year extra on insurance.
By a little stock, currently I'm looking at £90 worth. That will go down and up regularly.