If I work at home or telecommute, do I need special insurance coverage?

If I work at home or telecommute, do I need special insurance coverage?

If you do work out of your home, you definitely cannot assume that your standard homeowner's insurance is going to cover all your exposures. Homeowner's insurance is really residential insurance. It's supposed to cover your personal property and liabilities in case anything should happen in terms of a fire or hurricane, in terms of someone being injured on your property. However, if you're running a business out of your home, there are special coverages that you can buy to cover your liabilities in that instance, because if you were found to have suffered a loss while you were working at home as opposed to just residing on the property, you could face the fact that you do not have coverage under your homeowner's policy. So it's a question you need to bring up to your agent and broker to make sure the insurer is aware of what the situation is. Perhaps endorsements could be added to the standard homeowner's policy to cover those situations, or you might need an additional home based business policy to cover you.