Working In The Shed? There Are Many Insurance Risks

The pandemic has prompted a wave of `shoffices,’ or rather homeworkers in sheds if you want to get real. For many it’s a great way to work from home without the noise and interruptions from otehr family members, but it can creat fire hazards due to bad/overloaded wiring and plugs, plus flammable timber coatings. Then there’s the slips n trips as you navigate your way aorund the kids bicycles to make a brew.

Then there’s the question of data security. Are you asking your employees to store customer/companydata in a shed based laptop, or file old school paperwork where random summer house visitors can browse sensitive documents? There are lots of pitfalls to the summer house office, not least of which is the possibility of the WFH employee knocking off early on Fridays to open a bottle of Malbec at 2pm. Just saying.

Here’s some comment from Jess Hurley, GI market lead at EIS;

“Trendy “shoffices” used by an estimated one in 10 people according to Aviva, are splitting insurers. Some insurers are opting to extend coverage at no extra cost while others are creating new policies or asking people to pay a premium. The latter options will leave customers disappointed and frustrated in insurance carriers’ efforts to secure reasonable pricing.

The issue of fair pricing, which is a point of frustration for insurers, is indicative of a wider problem for insurers: legacy systems. These outdated systems hold insurers back, restricting their ability to adapt their products to emerging needs and cover insurance risk, such as increased fire hazards, when lines are blurred between personal and commercial risks. With the proportion of shoffice users expected to increase to 13%, the problem of accounting for the blurring lines between commercial and personal use is significant.

To navigate the blend of commercial and personal risk, insurers need more customer-centric systems, which base price on home and motor use on actual usage and an accurate evaluation of the risks posed. Precedents can be found in motor insurance coverage for rideshare drivers that can switch between personal and commercial use through an app, changing the amount of cover the driver has depending on risk state – does the driver have passengers or not?  Is the driver between rides or using it for a personal errand?

These systems move beyond legacy and modern legacy, to technology which is AI-enabled and more open to data, enabling policies to be configured and priced accurately to fit the risk.”