Shed Building Plans

Shed and garden office insurance latest figures

Now that were close to the finish line for the Shed of the Year 2015 competition, Gocompare.com is urging owners to make sure they have adequate insurance cover for their shedlike atmospheres.

Sheds and other garden outbuildings are usually covered as fixtures and fittings under buildings insurance. This cover pays out for any damage to the structure arising from events such as fire, vandalism or burglary.

Moveable items such as garden furniture, cycles, garden and DIY tools are considered as household contents. Generally speaking, insurers impose restrictions on the amount you can claim for these items damaged or stolen from your garden outbuildings.

An analysis of over 350 home insurance policies by Gocompare.com revealed that:

* 3% of policies don’t provide any cover for contents left in outbuildings

* Of those providing cover for contents in outbuildings, cover ranges widely from £500 to unlimited

* Bicycles are treated separately – with limits on both the pay-out for an individual bike and the total amount payable.   11% of policies exclude cover for pushbikes

* Policies typically have a separate limit for theft from outbuildings (ranging from none to unlimited cover) with most policies providing between £1,000 and £3,000 worth of cover. However, insurers generally only cover theft claims if the items were stolen from a securely locked shed or outbuilding where there are signs of forced entry

Ben Wilson, home insurance spokesperson at Gocompare.com, said: “As the Shed of the Year competition illustrates, for many people a garden shed is much more than a place to house the lawnmower, gardening tools, or old decorating equipment.

“But whether you use your shed just for outdoor storage or as a garden pub, a studio or a home gym, you should stop to consider the value and security of your shed’s contents.  When you stop and add up the cost of replacing items housed in your shed, you might be surprised by their collective value. Thieves target sheds because despite some containing a range of valuable contents, security is often overlooked, making them an easier target than a house. 

“Home insurance policies differ considerably in terms of cover, excesses and exclusions for sheds and other outbuildings. To make sure that you have the protection you need, it’s important that you compare product features, not just prices.     

“Insurers will also expect you to take care of your possessions and may only settle a theft claim if the shed was securely locked, with good quality locks and where there is evidence of forced entry. So if you have particularly valuable items, such as an expensive bicycle, you need to check that it is covered by your insurance and whether there are any other requirements such as locking it to an immoveable object inside the locked outbuilding.”       

To help you estimate the value of your contents, including in your shed/outbuildings, you can use Gocompare.com’s  new home contents calculator. ----------------------------------------------------
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Shed and garden office insurance latest figures

Insurance for shedworkers

 Only 42% of homeworkers are confident that their home insurance covers the equipment – such as computers, tablets and printers – they use for work, a survey by Gocompare.com Home Insurance suggests.

The comparison website compared over 300 home contents insurance policies and found that while most provide cover for business equipment,  5% only provide this cover as an optional extra, and 8% give no cover at all.  Of those policies providing cover, there was a significant variation in the sums insured, from just £500 to unlimited cover. The vast majority (87%) of policies exclude cover for business stock. Of the 44 policies which cover business stock, half provide just £500 worth of cover. 

Ben Wilson, home insurance spokesperson at Gocompare.com, said: “With many companies offering flexible working to employees, it’s not unusual for people to work from home either on a fulltime or occasional basis. But if you do so regularly you need to let your home insurer know that you are using your home for business purposes. This doesn’t apply if you only work the odd day or two from home, for example to look after a sick child.

“Your insurer will want to know the type of work you undertake at home.  For example, whether it’s clerical work or whether you’re providing a service such as physiotherapy and have regular business visitors. As a rule of thumb, clerical work doesn’t make much difference to the cost of your cover because many policies cover administrative duties. However, receiving regular business visitors or storing stock could have a bigger impact on your insurance premium. However, some home insurers give a discount if your home is occupied during the day so it’s important to shop around to find the cover you need at a good price."

He added that failing to tell your insurer that you work from home could invalidate your policy if you need to make a claim.

“If you keep stock or product samples at home then you need to inform your insurer," he said. "Most contents insurance policies exclude cover for business stock, so you’ll probably need to buy a separate policy to cover this. Also, if in running your business you keep cash at home, then you’ll need to check your home insurance policy limits to make sure you have adequate cover. However, if you use equipment supplied by your employer, such as a work laptop, you should not put this on your own home insurance policy.”  ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UKs premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here


Insurance for shedworkers

Garden office and beach hut insurance Everyone gets the insurance they deserve

A guest post by Matt Briggs of Love Your Hut

Remember when supermarkets used to only sell tins, packets, non-perishables and, if you were lucky, the odd bag of frozen peas? Gone are those days, as a trip to any of the “Big 5” will show you. Clothing, washing machines, garden furniture and large screen TVs are just some of the non-food items attempting to part you from even more of your hard earned cash.

Well I don’t know about you, but I’m still a big believer in specialism and expertise: my next TV will be bought from a specialist electronics retailer. Similarly, would you trust your average home insurer to be completely ‘au fait’ with the ins and outs of insurance for shedworkers? Can you be sure that your existing home insurance policy is, frankly, up to the job of protecting your shed/outbuilding and its contents?

Love Your Hut is proudly ‘niche’ – we provide bespoke insurance cover specifically for shedworking, shepherd’s huts, tiny houses, beach huts and chalets. Every case is unique to us, we don’t do ‘standard’ and genuinely believe in personal service. To use the supermarket analogy again, we’re the ‘family butcher’ to the big-name insurer’s ‘pre-packed meat counter’! With over 20 years’ combined experience of insuring unconventional structures of all shapes and sizes, we’re proud of the fact that it’s all we do.

We’re not a jack of all trades, but we like to think we’re the master of this one.

Get in touch with us for an insurance quotation on 01924 580 990, enquiry@loveyourhut.co.uk or visit www.loveyourhut.co.uk.


Garden office and beach hut insurance Everyone gets the insurance they deserve

Home insurance for shedworkers

A new survey by Gocompare.com Home Insurance shows that shedworkers and other people working from home are often failing to take into account the impact their work may have on their lease, mortgage agreement or home insurance.

The survey of 1,800 UK adults reveals that a third of people in Britain have tried to make money from their home including opening their home to pet boarding, renting a room to a short-term guest through sites such as Airbnb, and running a beauticians business.

The survey also found that:

* 26% have not considered that their activities might invalidate their home insurance

* 18% had not informed their home insurer about their venture

* 13% had not investigated whether they would need to be licenced to run their home business (e.g. health and safety, food hygiene)

* 11% have not received permission from their mortgage lender, landlord or housing association

Around 6% said they had made an insurance claim as a result of their home business activities and half that figure admitted that their home-based work had got them into trouble with their mortgage lender or landlord/housing association. Another 2% said that their insurer refused to cover them for the activity they wanted to pursue.

Gocompare.com has produced an interactive guide on how to earn from your home  --------------------------------------------------------------------
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Home insurance for shedworkers