Batten down the hatches during the third wave. Can working from home affect your insurance?
Amidst the third wave of COVID-19 infections, many South Africans, including the PBA team, have opted to stay safe by continuing to work from home. However, what many homeowners may not be aware of is that these new working conditions have an impact on your short-term insurance cover.
If you are currently working at home, it is important that you not only check and double-check your short-term policy, but also notify your broker or insurer of this change in risk profile.
This will help ensure that this change in the working environment does not affect your cover as, for example, your risk has now changed, or you may have acquired additional IT infrastructure or company equipment.
We need to bear in mind that, depending on your occupation, if you are still working from home and do not inform your broker or insurer, you may have a declined claim on your hands. It is more than likely that to be able to work from home you’ll need to have company equipment on your premises such as a laptop or PC, printer, dongle, or perhaps even an uninterrupted power supply (UPS), which you may be financially responsible for.
Other equipment that we forget to take into consideration include extra computer screens, headsets, keyboards, tablet devices, webcams etc. Generally speaking, a personal homeowner’s policy is not designed to insure a home-based business or even work undertaken under full- or part-time employment.
Therefore, you will need to check with your employer whether these items are properly covered in terms of the company insurance policy and, thereby, help you determine whether or not you need additional cover.
If you have moved your office to your home and have set up a virtual working environment, contact a broker at PBA to check whether you are correctly and sufficiently covered.
Contact us:
Phone: 011 803 9686
Email: vivian@pbafsa.co.za or bev@pbafsa.co.za
Comments