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 building works on a client's house.
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.
Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement if you have employees. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, which you can read more about here.
We cover you for £10 million, as standard. This covers the legal and compensation costs you are required to pay if an employee gets injured or becomes ill because of the work they do for you.
Insure your specialist equipment, like food mixers and rollers, with our contents cover. You can choose to insure items stored at home and items taken away from your premises. For example, any cake stands or tables you might take to an event.
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.
You can also insure the essential electrical items needed to run your business, like your work laptop, smartphone or even a till.
If you're making a cake for a big event, like a birthday party or a wedding, and the produce in your fridge is ruined following a power cut, you'll need to get new ingredients quickly to avoid disappointing your clients. With our stock insurance, we can cover the cost of replacing your ingredients, so you can whip up something new.
As well as your ingredients, we can also cover your finished products, both at home and when they're taken away from your premises. For example, if a wedding cake is being delivered to your customer via a third party delivery service, and it gets damaged in transit, your customer is likely to expect a heavy discount. We can cover the cost of the cake, so you don't lose out.
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 would 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 mixers. 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.
Peace of mind, if you experience a sudden and unexpected issue, which can cause damage to your home, makes it unsafe or uninhabitable, home emergency's 24-hour claims line means help is never far away. You'll have a certified contractor, such as plumbers, electricians, glaziers, locksmiths, or drainage engineers at your home within 4 hours of your claim being registered, to make the property secure or prevent further damage. In addition, you have access to gas engineers, pest control services and roofers, but these are not subject to the 4-hour response time. Extreme weather and remote locations may extend the response time.
Up to £1,500 inc. VAT per claim for call-out charges, labour costs and materials for insured emergencies, such as issues with plumbing, heating or pest infestations.
There's no excess to pay and no limit on how often you can claim.
You can add home emergency to a Direct Line business policy, so long as you run your business from home and have home buildings insurance, home contents insurance or business contents insurance on your policy. It is available on new and renewal policies, it can't be added during the policy term.
Home emergency isn't currently available on policies that include commercial premises.
For more information click here.
Depending on the type of business you run, you might work from home, in an office, at your shop, a client's premises or a shared working space. If your working premises became unusable due to an insured event like a fire or flood, business interruption will cover the costs of relocating until it's fixed. It can also cover you for any lost turnover during this time if you've insured your premises or business property with us.
If your main supplier or customer suffers damage to their premises and can't trade, we'll cover you for the loss of business you'll suffer. Equally, if a market or fair that you regularly attend suffers a fire, we'll cover the lost turnover for the time you can't trade there. 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.
Our business interruption cover can insure you if you or one of your key employees becomes seriously disabled and is unable to continue work. We will cover the incurred costs, up to £25,000, to minimise any interruption to the business.
Theft of Takings covers cash or cheques stolen from you in transit, from a safe or on you while you're working at other premises, such as your clients' homes. Maximum limits apply.
If you hold sensitive customer data, process payments online or just want peace of mind, Cyber cover should be considered. Because cyber criminals can be clever. Catching you off-guard and tricking you in to 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 devastating.
But, with our Cyber cover, you can call the experts, 24/7. They'll be on it, helping you to stay in business and recover in three ways following a cyber incident:
Recover financially
Recover your reputation
Recover your systems and help prevent future incidents
Read more on Cyber cover here.
Available on new and renewal policies only. For Retail and Office & Professional customers only.
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.
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, you can extend this to include cover for reduced turnover and the costs of setting up elsewhere, due to damage to your premises resulting from an Act of Terrorism. It will also cover you not being able to access your premises as a result of an Act of Terrorism within 1 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 adding it online or 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.
If you have an existing quote or policy with us, you can view and download your policy documents from the My Account page.
We tailor all our policies, so your documents only show what you've chosen to cover.
Here is a summary of a generic policy, from 24 April 2024 onwards, which shows the main covers and exclusions in our policies.
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.
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