What insurance has everybody got?

[SueEllen]

Wonder if it will click to check their home insurance if they claim an office at home...

Plus "All risks personal possessions away from home" ......

Mind you if you get these wrong they just won't pay out to you. If you get your car insurance wrong then you can get arrested for driving without insurance ....

[northernladuk]

Plus "All risks personal possessions away from home" ......

Mind you if you get these wrong they just won't pay out to you. If you get your car insurance wrong then you can get arrested for driving without insurance ....

Or worse if you have a serious accident....

[No2politics]

Or worse if you have a serious accident....

Even worse you permanently disable someone else and have to pay them compo for loss of earning for their entire life. Welcome to bankrupt city

[GB9]

WSES. Plus (a) you can take out the additional cover if you really want to and (b) you will know enough to declare yourself inside IR35 if you are genuinely caught.

I know enough about how things 'should' be interpreted. The additional insurance is in case something unexpected happens (and it does). It seems that every now and again a Tribunal feels the need to bring in a 'new' interpretation of the law.

[SueEllen]

Even worse you permanently disable someone else and have to pay them compo for loss of earning for their entire life. Welcome to bankrupt city

Apparently only a few insurers will chase you in that situation as if the compo is a few million and you definitely don't have it then there is no point in chasing you. After all in that situation your defence costs plus the court costs would have probably nearly bankrupted you.

[malvolio]

I know enough about how things 'should' be interpreted. The additional insurance is in case something unexpected happens (and it does). It seems that every now and again a Tribunal feels the need to bring in a 'new' interpretation of the law.

Maybe, but as a PCG member you would be the first to hear of it, you would be told what to do about it by some of best qualified advisors on the subject, you would be helping the contractor community fight against it and you would be represented at the meeting where such changes are discussed prior to their announcement.

Protection takes many forms. Stopping things happening in the first place is better than reacting to them when they do.

[Wanderer]

Well as you are travelling to and from your temporary location you are using your car for business, not commuting. You are claiming the mileage under the wholly and exclusively for trade etc... Having an accident while doing this will invalidate your insurance as you are not commuting.

Adding business level 1 or whatever you insurance people call it will be peanuts. Even if you travelled between sites as a permie if you expense the mileage using your own car you needed this.

I've had insurance policies in the past where they have specifically stated that travelling where your business pays you a mileage allowance is permitted under the SD&P+commuting part of the policy but of course policies differ so you have to check the fine print.

You are right about class-1 business use though - usually it doesn't cost anything to have it so that's what I get if I can.

Wonder if it will click to check their home insurance if they claim an office at home...

I worked for a company that had a big work from home culture and they had approached all the major insurers and couldn't find any that had a problem with working from home (even if that was their primary work place) so long as the home owner didn't have business visitors coming to their home office. Once again, you need to read the fine print to be sure but I don't think it's a big deal.

[SueEllen]

I worked for a company that had a big work from home culture and they had approached all the major insurers and couldn't find any that had a problem with working from home (even if that was their primary work place) so long as the home owner didn't have business visitors coming to their home office. Once again, you need to read the fine print to be sure but I don't think it's a big deal.

Actually there are a couple of large insurers who will not automatically cover your office contents if you do not tell them. Some of your office contents will be in your business' name not yours.

Hiscox, Axa and Directline cover you automatically.

Others you have to ask and Zurich have thick staff.

[Gemma at Qdos]

Comes in two flavours. First is two cover you for the legal costs of the investigation, trial etc. This is, IMHO, best sourced by joining the PCG. #JFDI #NoBrainer

The second is to cover the costs of any tax owed and penalties and is not so clear cut for many. Based on the fact that someone has assessed your liability and has made a risk call to indemnify you, they think that their chances of having to pay out are pretty slim. If they think that, why would you need the insurance.

I do have both because for what it costs I get a good nights sleep. YMMV

Most tax loss insurances (the ones that cover your liabilities etc) generally cover the representation etc as well. Having both seems a waste of money if you just have membership for that purpose (though I'm sure that's not the case). Just be aware that if your tax loss insurance does cover representation as well, it is unlikely (and certainly not if it is ours) that you would be able to seek representation from PCG and then get the liabilities covered by the other insurance. You will have to do it all in one place.
The tax loss insurers (again I can say definitely for ourselves) would have no problem paying out for your liabilities if they had defended you and lost the case (ps. never happened to us yet ) but if you had gone somewhere else and THEY had lost the case, I think it's fairly obvious that the tax loss insurers aren't going to pay for the consequences.

Just wanted to make sure you were aware of that in case you ever did receive a letter *touch wood you don't*

[northernladuk]

I've had insurance policies in the past where they have specifically stated that travelling where your business pays you a mileage allowance is permitted under the SD&P+commuting part of the policy but of course policies differ so you have to check the fine print.

You are right about class-1 business use though - usually it doesn't cost anything to have it so that's what I get if I can.



I worked for a company that had a big work from home culture and they had approached all the major insurers and couldn't find any that had a problem with working from home (even if that was their primary work place) so long as the home owner didn't have business visitors coming to their home office. Once again, you need to read the fine print to be sure but I don't think it's a big deal.

I agree with all this but the message here is the fine print. Insurance bastards will do everything they possibly can to get out of it and seems to be common now to reduce the prices by reducing the cover so it is absolutely essential, now more than ever, to read the fine print. We got caught out using the comparison sites trying to get a like for like insurance which we thought we had done until the fine print came. The old one had items away from home included. The new one had it as an option you had to tick that put the price up above what the comparison site said. We had to know our old insurance inside out to know we had it and read every line in the new one to know we had to tick it... which we didn't until we needed it. Twats.

Ended up going with Direct Line which appeared to be the British Airways of insurance with an all in approach. The others were like Ryanair asking to tick for this, tick for that.. but anyway, that is going off topic.