Freelancers, are you insured?

[Toughtips]

Do I need to be insured to be a freelancer? If I'm doing customer service from home/ admin work?

Yes. If you're being paid to do something and working from home then basic business insurance will be fine. Public liability in the least but you might want to consider professional indemnity and legal cover too.

Used to work from home for a while and I always had it.

Public liability is an absolute minimum. Depending what service professional indemnity too.

Public liability is only required if you are coming into contact with the public ie visiting customers or them visiting you.
Depending on what you do you may require professional indemnity cover (for if you give advice) or you may need your home office equipment covering (some normal home insurers cover this as standard).
At the least, you do need to inform your landlord/mortgage provider and home insurance provider.

I do this sort of thing and no I'm not insured. No need.

I don't ever have people coming to see me at home, all communication is by email/Skype. There is no "risk" associated with the work I can do - nobody's going to sue me because they disagree with my article about the "top 5 places for a UK holiday with your dog", for example.

If you're practicising as a freelance lawyer/accountant that's totally different and yes you'd need professional liability.

Hiya, thanks for your replies. I'm a customer service advisor by email and social media for a clothing brand. I also do administration for a charity. I don't need public liability as I work virtually so I'm never physically around members of the public. However in still unsure whether I need professional indemnity?

If someone could sue you for giving advise then yes you do, however I am guessing you are trained by the company you work for and therefore the onus is on them to provide you with the correct training.

I advise my clients customers on delivery times and product queries, is that the same thing? I also cancel and refund customers too. I'm just confused as to whether I need Professional indemnity

I wouldn't say you do need it. The people who you are dealing with have no contract with you, they are buying and selling from another organisation do the contract is between the customer and hte supplier. You're just providing customer service and I presume using the supplier's information to give guidance on lead times. That's not professional advice.

Professional indemnity is totally different. It would be required for a lawyer who could potentially cause a financial loss to a client by getting it wrong. Same for an accountant who forgets to submit a tax return on time or some other sort of professional whose wrong advice could cause a financial loss.

Yes I am. My insurance covers me for any claims about copyright as well as helps me recover unpaid sums if my client doesn’t pay an invoice. It costs me about £200 a year and is worth it for the peace of mind.