Does my in-home hobby need to be insured?

Check your social media and you’ll find a number of your friends and family may be soliciting some sort of product for sale.  Anything from candles and oils, childcare, crafting, photography, clothing, etc. Chances are, if you are making a profit, you need to insure your ‘hobby’.

It may be hard to realize your in-home hobby can be considered a business. However, it is defind as exactly that in the verbiage in your current HomeOwners Insurance policy. The amount of profit does not matter, if there is profit – it will more than likely be considered a business by your HomeOwners insurance company and claims can be denied.

For instance – if a delivery driver carrying a package containing supplies for your ‘hobby items for sale’ and injurs himself; the standard Home Insurance policy would not cover the cost. Or, a group of women come to your home to view a cooking demo and purchase kitchen items and are later injured by one of those items; a claim would more than likely be denied.

So, what can you do? There are three basic options to insure your in-home business.

• add a rider to your current Home Insurance policy
•  a specific ‘in-home business policy’
• a Business Owners policy

Each option offers different coverages that can be tailored to fit your specific home business needs. For more resources about your possible in-home business, please read the article here.  Feel free to contact Professional Underwriters to discuss the coverage options available to you.