A business run from the house sits mostly outside the home policy that covers the house.
A desk in the spare room, a bench in the garage, stock in the basement, a van on the driveway. A home policy does carry a little cover for business property, but the amount is small, it usually stops at your own front door, and the liability side is thinner again. Telling your insurer is what keeps the rest of the policy safe.
Tell us what you do at home Read the short answer firstThe business has to be declared.
Cover for gear stops at the door.
Anyone coming for the work is the risk.
Does home insurance cover a business run from the house?
A little of it, and only where the insurer knows about the business. Most home policies include a small limit for business property such as books, tools and equipment, and that limit normally applies only while those items are inside the home. Carry the same equipment to a client, leave it in a vehicle overnight, or keep stock you intend to sell, and the personal policy generally steps back. Business liability is a separate question again, and a home wording is not built to answer it.
The equipment is not usually the biggest exposure. It is the person who comes to your address because of the work. A client, a student, a courier collecting an order, a supplier dropping off materials. If one of them is hurt on your property, that is a business liability claim arriving at a personal policy. Homeowner liability is written for private life, and an insurer reading a claim will look at why the visitor was there.
Almost every difficulty here starts with the same omission. The business was never mentioned at renewal, because it felt too small to matter or because it grew slowly out of a hobby. Insurance Bureau of Canada states the duty plainly: “you must inform your home insurer of the business on premises”. Disclosing costs a conversation. Not disclosing puts the whole policy in question at the worst moment, because an insurer that finds an undeclared business while investigating a claim is entitled to ask what else was not said. Read what the Insurance Bureau of Canada says about home business cover (opens in a new tab).
Four things a home policy will not stretch to cover.
Equipment that leaves the house
Tools, cameras, laptops and instruments are often covered in a small way while they sit at home, and left uncovered the moment they travel to a job. Anyone whose work happens at somebody else’s address should assume the away cover is not there until a broker confirms it.
Stock, samples and inventory
Goods bought to be sold are business property, not household contents, however tidily they are stacked in a spare room. Volume grows quietly with an online shop, and the value in the basement can pass the household limit long before anyone thinks to check.
The visitor who comes for the work
A client on the steps in freezing rain, a student in the hallway, a delivery driver on a wet driveway. Personal liability answers for private life. A commercial general liability policy answers for people who are there because you trade, and it is usually inexpensive at this scale.
The vehicle the work depends on
Anything taken from a vehicle or damaged in one sits outside both the home policy and a personal auto policy. How a vehicle is rated also follows how it is actually used, so if the van now carries tools or deliveries, that is a question to put to an Autoplan broker rather than to guess at.
Three houses, three quiet changes.
The spare room that became an office
Consulting started as evening work and turned into the whole income. Clients began arriving for meetings. The home policy has not changed since the mortgage was arranged, and it still describes a private residence with nobody visiting for business reasons.
The garage that filled with stock
An online shop grew from a shelf to a wall of boxes waiting to ship. A pipe let go in February. The contents claim was paid for the household goods and the boxes were treated as business property, which is where the gap opened.
The trade that started at the kitchen table
Two people, a van, and tools worth more than the van. The tools live at home overnight, travel every morning, and sit on sites all day. Every one of those three locations is treated differently, and the personal policy only ever looked at one of them.
The questions that come up once the work is real.
I only answer email at home. Do I really have to mention it?
Mention it anyway. A laptop and no visitors is the easiest version of this conversation and it usually ends with nothing to change, which is worth knowing for certain. What it also does is put the business on the record, so nothing about it is a surprise if you ever claim.
Will telling my insurer push the premium up?
Often barely, and sometimes not at all for a quiet office with no callers. Where a premium does move, it moves because the risk genuinely changed, and the alternative is holding a policy that may not answer. Ask for the figure before you decide anything.
I rent. Does a tenant policy work the same way?
The same logic applies. Tenant policies carry a small business property limit and personal liability written for private life, so a business run from a rented suite raises the same two questions. Your lease may also have something to say about trading from the address.
We are in a condo. Is anything different?
Yes, because there is a third party involved. Your unit policy and the strata bylaws both matter, and some bylaws restrict what business activity is allowed in a unit or how many visitors may come. Read the bylaws first, then the policy, because one can settle the question before the other.
My business is tiny. Do I need a full commercial policy?
Not always. The three usual routes are an endorsement added to the home policy, a small standalone business package, or nothing at all because the exposure really is minor. Which one fits is decided by whether people visit and whether equipment travels, not by how much you bill.
Two that sit next to this on the same site: what counts as your unit in a condo and what general liability does not cover.
Not the question you had? Describe the work and the address through the short start form and you will get a written answer, not a sales call.
Put the business on the policy before you need the policy.
It is a short conversation now and a long argument later. For most home businesses in British Columbia the fix is small, and for some there is nothing to fix at all.