by William Addison

Created on: February 10, 2008

More people are working from their homes today than ever before due to the Internet. If you are conducting business from your home, you should be aware of the limitations of a standard home-owner's insurance policy, as well as coverage options that are available.

Older insurance forms describe business personal property as "personal property used at any time or in any manner for any business purpose." Newer forms that have recently been updated describe the same property as "used primarily for business purposes." This broadens coverage slightly, in that some items that may be used occasionally for business are no longer considered business personal property.

A typical home-owner's policy will only pay $2,500 for business personal property, if it is damaged while on premises and the limit is reduced to only $250 for business personal property off premises.

Fortunately, these limits can be overcome with an "Increased Limits On Business Personal Property Endorsement". This endorsement will cost extra, but may be worthwhile if you business personal property's value exceeds the above noted figures. It will increase the $2,500 limit noted above and can be tailored to your needs in increments of $2,500, but it does have a maximum available coverage of $10,000.

There are some types of business personal property that are simply never covered by a home-owner's policy. This includes property rented, or held for rental to others, and Paper Records or software media storing business data. There is an exception however to the latter, in that the cost of blank recording or storage media, and computer programs that can be purchased on discs or other storage media is covered.

If your business is large enough, you may want to consider a product called a "Home Business Insurance Coverage Endorsement HOBIZ?". The Insurance Services Office, Inc. provides the following information on this endorsement:

"New features offered by the endorsement include:

* Payment of up to $5,000 for on-premises loss of accounts receivable and up to $2,500 for an off-premises loss.
* Payment of up to $2,500 for loss of manuscripts, records and other documents that have not been duplicated.
* Loss of business income for up to 12 months because of a business suspension caused by an insured peril.
* Payment for up to 12 months for the additional expense a business incurs because of damage to the home.
* Payment for the loss of business income for up to three weeks after a civil authority bans access to the place

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