Insurance - working from home

[susieq]

I've been wanting to dip my toe into the world of selling my jewellery for a while, but like others have run into a brick wall when it comes to finding an insurance company to cover me for home business use which involves the use of gas/flame (at an affordable price). Even a policy I found specifically for jewellery makers expressly excluded the use of flame (other than for cooking and/or heating) and gas (again, other than of cooking and/or heating). Apparently soldering doesn't count as heating.

A chance conversation about this with a colleague at my jewellery class and he mentioned he had just got a policy with Military Mutual.

http://www.themilitarymutual.com

So I gave them a call and explained what I was looking for how I only had a little torch (well two actually) at the moment but would probably want to upgrade to a bigger torch attached to propane tank at some point in the future. I was put on hold whilst he spoke with one of their under-writers and they came back couple of minutes later saying yes, all fine.

Now I don't have much in the way of equipment, so £100k contents cover for the whole house (their upper limit) is okay for me (although thinking about it maybe I should get my other half to take out a separate contents cover for his expensive suit and shoe collection!). Contents are covered on an all risk basis unlike my old policy where I had to list everything that went outside of the house for which I wanted cover. Anything worth over £5k has to be noted on the policy though, and there's the usual excesses.

Buildings insurance cover is for £1M - pretty standard.

The quote was a bit of a shocker. Contents AND buildings insurance for less than my recent renewal notice for contents only (which offered significantly less cover than £100k).

I know I'll still need to sort out other insurance if I try out craft fair selling, etc., but at least now the only thing holding me back from starting up is me!

Susieq

[RuthWinchester]

Susie - if / when you want to start selling direct, A-N (artists network) does £5m public liability for artists and craftspeople as part of their standard membership - all for the very reasonable sum of about £40.

[ShinyLauren]

Thanks Susie - I will try these guys. Like you I hit a brick wall trying to find any home working insurance I could afford last year.

[Faith]

Thanks for the tip Susie until I read your post fully I thought it was going to be another horror story! The best I found was home protect, which was a little more than my current policy. I'll try the guys you suggested, although I still think the me holding me back part will be a serious factor!

Faith

[Kermit]

Hi.

Would you mind sharing roughly how much your annual premium was for the home insurance?

Thanks

[susieq]

Susie - if / when you want to start selling direct, A-N (artists network) does £5m public liability for artists and craftspeople as part of their standard membership - all for the very reasonable sum of about £40.

Thanks Ruth, I'll take a look at them.

[susieq]

Hi.

Would you mind sharing roughly how much your annual premium was for the home insurance?

Thanks

Not a problem. Contents and buildings cover for a premium of around £450 p.a.

[TeeDee]

Looking at past and recent threads on insurance and supplier discounts I'm thinking of joining GOJD or a similar organisation.

Does anyone know if PPL insurance covers working on other peoples jewellery i.e. re-modelling or or repairing?

For instance a lady will shortly be sending me an amethyst set ring. She wants to know if I can build her a new ring and incorporate the old stone in it. I have told her that removing old stones and resetting them is not without risk and that while I would take care there is the risk of fracture or chipping which she would have to carry. I also have a couple of gold chains to repair.
If I trash something is it covered or is there yet another level of insurance needed?
Apologies in advance if this opens up another can of 'insurance worms'