New policies only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Excludes policies with home emergency cover added. Qualifying criteria apply. .
Even if you view your cake business as a hobby, if you sell to the public, it's important to have insurance.
If the wedding cake you've made gets damaged in transit or a customer becomes ill after eating one of your creations, you could face some very unhappy clients and a compensation claim. Plus, if a vital piece of equipment breaks, you'll have to contend with some unexpected costs.
Having business insurance in place can help you fix problems quickly and safeguard your finances. Plus, we let you choose exactly what type of cover goes into your policy, so whether you work alone in your kitchen or run a cake shop with employees, you're covered if you get into a sticky situation.
You can include any of the following cover types in your cake maker and decorator insurance policy. These covers are subject to policy conditions and limits.
Public liability insurance covers you if you cause injury to a member of the public or accidentally damage someone's property. An example of this could include a customer slipping on a wet floor in your shop or office and hurting themselves, or causing damage while carrying out buildings works on a client's house. You'll be held liable for the claim if you have not taken adequate precautions to prevent any accidents or damage occurring.
This insurance also covers you if a customer or member of the public becomes ill or suffers an injury because of a product you have supplied. For example, if the heel snaps off a shoe someone has bought from you, causing them to fall over, or if a cupcake you sell at an event makes someone sick.
If the people in question pursued legal action against you, public and product liability insurance would cover the costs you are liable to pay. We can offer cover from £1 million to £10 million. Plus, we can cover costs to help you defend the claim.
Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement if you have employees. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, which you can find out more about on our employers' liability page.
We'll cover you up to £10 million, as standard. This cover includes the legal and compensation costs you must pay if an employee gets injured or becomes ill because of the work they do for you.
You can insure the equipment needed to run your business, like your till, coffee machine, sandwich maker and even your laptop, with our contents cover.
If your equipment is stolen or damaged by an insured event, e.g. a fire or flood, we'll cover the cost of replacing it. So, you won't have to worry about forking out for expensive machinery you hadn't budgeted for.
If your stock gets damaged overnight, e.g. because of a flood or a faulty freezer, and you can no longer serve most of the items on your menu, you'll likely lose takings for the day.
Our stock insurance will cover the cost of replacing your food, including any raw ingredients, so you can carry on running your business. We can cover food stored at home and food taken away from your premises, e.g. cupcakes being transported to a customer via a third-party delivery service.
We offer an extra 25% of cover for 15 days before and after every bank holiday, and for two months of your choice, as standard. This is especially useful if you know you have a particularly busy period, like Christmas.
If there is an insured event such as flood or fire at your work premises, buildings insurance will cover the costs of repairing the damage, helping you get back up and running.
Equipment breakdown cover (for items forming part of the building) is included as standard. This will cover the costs of replacing or repairing things like your broken boiler and fire/burglar alarms, as long as the damage is not due to wear and tear.
When you insure your contents or stock, you'll get equipment breakdown cover as standard. This means you can insure the essential machinery needed to run your business, like cookers and dishwashers. If they break down, we can cover the cost of repairing or replacing them, as long as the damage is not due to wear and tear.
Similarly, if you choose to insure your premises, we'll automatically cover the items that form part of the building, such as your boiler or fire alarm. The breakdown must not be due to wear and tear.
If you experience a sudden and unexpected issue that causes damage to your home that makes it unsafe or uninhabitable, the home emergency 24-hour claims line is here to help. You'll have a certified contractor, such as a plumber, electrician, glazier, locksmith, or drainage engineer, at your home within four hours of registering your claim to secure the property or prevent further damage. You'll also have access to gas engineers, pest control services, and roofers. These services are excluded from the 4-hour response time. Extreme weather and remote locations may extend the response time.
There is a limit of up to £1,500, including VAT, per claim for call-out charges, labour costs, and materials for insured emergencies, such as plumbing, heating, or pest infestations.
You don't have to pay any excess. There's no limit on how often you can claim.
You can add home emergency to a Direct Line business policy for an additional premium, if you run your business from home and have home buildings insurance, home contents insurance, or business contents insurance on your policy. It's available only on new and renewal policies, and you can't add it mid-term.
Home emergency cover isn't currently available on policies that include commercial premises or tradesperson businesses.
Business interruption insurance offers cover if your workplace is unusable after an insured event such as a fire, theft or flood. Whether you run your business from home, an office, a shop, a client's location, or a shared workspace, business interruption insurance can help cover any loss of income until your business can operate at the same level as it previously did had the damage from the incident not occurred. If you need to temporarily relocate due to this damage, we may also pay for the relocation costs if it's economically viable.
If your main supplier or customer's premises get damaged due to an insured event and they can't trade, we'll cover any loss of turnover for your business. We can only do this once their insurer accepts the claim and manages the repairs to their premises. Similarly, if there's an incident, such as a fire, at a location where your business frequently trades, and you can't trade elsewhere, we'll cover the loss of turnover for the time the premises are unusable.
Business interruption will also cover you if key equipment that you use to run your business, like a laptop, is damaged or stolen, meaning you can't trade.
If you, an owner, partner, director, trustee, or other essential employee of your business die or become seriously disabled as a result of an injury caused by accident and violent means, and are unable to continue working, we'll cover the incurred costs, up to £25,000, to minimise any interruption to the business.
Theft of Takings covers cash or cheques stolen:
Maximum limits conditions and exclusions apply.
If you hold sensitive customer data, process payments online, or just want peace of mind, cyber cover could be a good option to help protect your business. Cyber criminals can catch you off-guard and trick you into doing something you shouldn't, like opening an attachment in a fake email or finding a way through your cyber security. If this happens and they get their hands on your data or access to your bank account, the impact on your business could be serious.
But, with our cyber cover, you can call the experts, 24/7. They'll help you to stay in business and recover in three ways following a cyber incident:
Find out more about cyber cover.
Available on new and renewal policies for eligible retail, and office and professional trades. Cover is up to the limit in your policy schedule for all claims made in the year. You must follow our requirements for data backup, firewalls and antivirus protection. You'll find these requirements and all other terms and conditions in your policy booklet.
This covers the legal costs of providing specialist lawyers and taking action against many common legal problems, for instance disputes with suppliers or clients. Legal expenses cover can only be used if there is at least a 51% chance that the claim will succeed.
Personal accident cover provides payment if anyone in your business between the ages 16-75 is unable to work because they've been injured in an accident, whether in a business or personal capacity. Including temporary or permanent hearing loss and loss of speech for tradespeople.
We'll pay a lump sum of £50,000 if there is an accidental death, accidental loss of limbs or sight, or if someone in your business becomes permanently disabled following an accident.
If someone in your business is unable to work due to a temporary injury, then after 7 days we'll pay their normal net weekly earnings up to £500 for up to 104 weeks.
You can choose Personal Accident as an add-on once you've completed your quote.
If you have commercial premises, you can extend your cover, for an additional premium, to include property damage as a result of an Act of Terrorism. We'll cover you up to the maximum sum insured on your policy for buildings, contents, and business interruption (depending on which covers you have taken).
This includes:
If you choose business interruption cover on your policy, terrorism cover will also include any interruption to or interference with the business, due to damage to your premises resulting from an Act of Terrorism. It will also cover you if you're unable to access your premises as a result of an Act of Terrorism within one mile of your business.
Acts of Terrorism are defined as damage caused by someone acting on behalf of, or in connection with, any organisation which uses force or violence to overthrow or influence the UK government.
Terrorism cover is only available for properties located in England, Wales and Scotland.
Terrorism insurance is optional, so an additional premium will apply.
You can include Terrorism cover on your policy by calling us on 0345 301 5066 when you take out your policy or at renewal, as it cannot be added to your policy mid-term.
When you get a quote, we'll send you a personalised policy document that shows the cover you've chosen.
These can also be found when you log into your account.
Here you can find examples of our latest retail insurance documents, which show the main covers we offer, plus exclusions.
At the moment, we don't cover cake makers and decorators who work at pop-ups, but we can cover you if you work at markets and fairs.
We are constantly reviewing and developing our policies; if we can't cover you now, we hope to be able to in the future.
Even if you run your business from home, public liability insurance is still important. If a customer or delivery person visits your home to collect a cake and trips over a loose wire in your hallway, resulting in an injury, they could make a claim against you. The same could happen if you visit a customer's home and accidentally damage their property.
Even if you don't interact with the public on a daily basis, accidents can still happen, and these mishaps won't be covered by your home insurance policy.
We offer public and product liability as a single cover option. This means you're also covered if the cakes you sell make a customer ill.
Our virtual assistant is ready to answer your questions.
Account