In short
- Home business stock insurance needs 5 written checks before you accept a shop’s goods: who owns them, which address is insured, whether goods held in trust are included, what loss events are covered and which limits or exclusions apply. A household contents policy is not proof that someone else’s commercial stock is covered.
- GOV.UK warns that home insurance may not cover business stock, equipment or visiting customers.
- Published business policy wording can treat goods held in trust separately from your own trade stock and exclude unexplained losses.
- AirPost does not insure stock in your home. Agree with the shop who obtains suitable cover before its first box arrives.
- AirPost is a peer-to-peer fulfilment network: online shops have their orders packed and dropped at a parcel point by verified people near their customers, who earn a fee per parcel from home. No warehouse, no minimum order volume.
A shop wants to send you products for local UK orders. You have a dry shelf and home contents insurance. The question that matters is not simply whether your home is insured: it is whether the policy covers these products, owned by that shop, while you hold them for paid packing work. That description is more useful to an insurer than saying you sometimes receive parcels.
This guide concerns cover before accepting stock, rather than a claim after a theft. The official pages and published policy example were checked on 10 October 2026. The AirPost sender page describes storing a shop’s stock and preparing its orders. If the proposed work instead consists of forwarding unexplained deliveries, read parcel reshipping jobs versus stock fulfilment before considering insurance for it.
Does my home insurance cover a shop’s stock?
GOV.UK’s home business guidance warns that household insurance may not cover business stock, computers or visitors. Tell your home insurer what the activity actually involves. Describe products belonging to an online shop, storage between customer orders, packing and trips to a drop-off point. Receiving inventory for paid work is a clearer description than occasionally working on a laptop.
Ask whether the existing home policy remains suitable and whether it needs an amendment or a separate business policy. Do not assume that a small quantity automatically makes commercial goods household belongings. Equally, do not assume the answer is always no. The insurer needs the actual activity and the policy wording to decide. Keep its written response with the schedule rather than relying on what you remember from a telephone conversation.
Describe where the goods will be kept, including a garage or outbuilding if relevant. A photograph of a shelf does not explain whether it is inside the insured building or in a separate structure. Explain whether other people have access and whether the space is shared with household items. These details let you ask a specific coverage question without making a promise to the shop that your general home insurance already answers it.
Why do goods held in trust matter if I do not own the stock?
The shop continues to own its inventory. Ask the insurer to address goods held in trust, or its equivalent wording for property belonging to others in your custody. A policy covering your own equipment might have different treatment for that property. The distinction matters even if your packing fee is small and the stock only occupies a corner of a room.
Aviva’s published June 2018 Homeworker and Tradesman summary illustrates the distinction: its equipment and stock section lists property entrusted to you under a separate limit. Cover depends on selected sections and the cover document. Use these clauses as reading examples and check the current wording offered to you; this older document does not confirm cover for your arrangement.
| Property or risk | Question for the insurer | What you need to identify |
|---|---|---|
| Your household possessions | Does this business activity affect my home policy? | Existing policy and the full activity description |
| The shop’s products | Are these goods belonging to others covered in my custody? | Ownership, storage address and relevant policy section |
| Packing tools you own | Are business tools included here or separately? | Your equipment and selected cover |
| Damage for which you may be responsible | Does the liability section address property in my care? | Any custody exclusion or agreed extension |
| Goods between home and drop-off | Which transit stage, if any, is covered? | Journey, vehicle and policy territory |
If a broker proposes a policy, ask them to point to the relevant clause and show how it applies to another business’s stock at your address. A short certificate saying business insured may leave ownership, storage and custody unanswered. You need enough detail to tell the shop what has actually been arranged. Do not convert a general policy heading into a promise to reimburse every damaged item.
Which exclusions should I read before a box arrives?
The same published Aviva example excludes theft damage without visible signs of entry, and certain malicious damage or escape of water when premises have been unoccupied for more than 45 days. It also excludes unexplained losses, fraud or dishonesty in that section. These are three different gaps to check in your own wording: entry evidence, absence conditions and a missing item whose cause is not established.
Imagine you count fewer products than the shop expected, but there is no sign of a break-in and no record of a damaged delivery. Do not label the shortfall burglary just because theft might be covered. Work out the inventory difference with the shop and describe the known facts accurately. Insurance for named events does not make every difference between a list and a shelf into an insured event.
Ask how your proposed storage fits any security and occupancy conditions. A garage that cannot be secured or a room left unused during a long trip may create a different question from a regularly occupied home. Keep the conditions accessible so you can revisit them before your circumstances change. The practical decision is how much stock you can responsibly accept under confirmed conditions, not how much physically fits into the room.
Can the shop’s own insurance cover goods at my home?
The shop can ask its insurer whether its business stock is covered outside its usual premises and while held by a third party. Your description should give it the information needed for that enquiry: the address, ownership, products and work you perform. AirPost’s copy recommends checking this possibility and says you can also arrange cover for goods belonging to others yourself.
Make the responsibility explicit before the first delivery. Who is asking the insurer? Who receives the answer? Which section and address does the answer concern? A shop saying our business is insured does not establish that your home is included. If the shop’s insurer needs more information, hold the delivery until you have supplied it and the shop has confirmed how it wants to proceed.
Keep an agreed list of the stock you accept and report changes in the proposed arrangement. The insurer may need to consider new products, a different room or a larger exposure. Ask what must be declared under your contract; do not invent a standard threshold. A simple arrangement that was assessed for one shop’s small batch should not silently become storage for several unrelated businesses.
Does an AirPost badge or parcel claim insure stock at home?
No. AirPost’s copy says it does not insure stored inventory and does not take the products into custody itself. The products stay the shop’s property. Its identity badge describes an identity document and live-selfie check; the bank-account badge describes an account that can receive payouts. Neither is a statement that fire, water damage or theft at your home will be paid by AirPost.
The copy also separates storage from transport. AirPost helps submit a claim to the carrier for a shipment problem. A loss before a parcel enters that transport process needs to be assessed under the storage arrangement and any relevant insurance. Keep the record of when and where damage happened clear. You cannot move a home-storage incident into the carrier claim process merely by creating a shipping label afterwards.
How do packing earnings differ from compensation for stock?
Consider a calculation using the payout rule in the copy, checked on 10 October 2026. Treat total handling earnings as 100 units in whichever currency your arrangement uses. A payout fee of 3% leaves 97 units before tax and your own costs. Those earnings are payment for work. They do not set the purchase value of stored goods or create an insurance payout of the same size.
If one product is damaged while stored, the question becomes what happened to that product, whether you are responsible under the agreement and whether a relevant policy responds. You cannot calculate an indemnity from the number of parcels you packed last week. Put work fees, inventory records and insurance information in separate records. That makes the discussion clearer when the shop asks about a product rather than your payout.
What should be agreed before accepting the first stock delivery?
Give the shop a plain description of the space you can offer and ask for the product list and intended quantity. Agree how to report a damaged incoming item, a later storage incident and a change in available space. Record who contacts the insurer and how you pause further deliveries if a coverage question remains open. Begin with a quantity you can count and inspect, rather than treating an insurance enquiry as permission for unlimited stock.
Compare the insurance response with the actual ownership and storage address. Ask a precise question where an answer is missing. The equipment guide for home senders helps with the physical setup once these responsibilities are clear.
Frequently asked questions
What insurance do I need to run a business from home?
Describe your actual work to your home insurer or broker. For holding a shop’s stock, ask specifically about business use, goods belonging to others, the storage location and custody. The right sections depend on the contract and activity.
Is stock insurance the same as public liability insurance?
Do not assume they cover the same loss. Check the stock section and any liability wording dealing with property in your care. Ask for the clause that answers your particular custody arrangement.
Does home business stock insurance cover an unexplained shortage?
Only your policy can answer. The published Aviva example excludes unexplained losses in its tools, stock and business equipment section. Count and investigate a shortage instead of describing it as an insured theft without evidence.
Does AirPost insure goods held in my home?
No. Its copy says stored stock is not insured by AirPost. Discuss suitable third-party goods cover or the shop’s off-premises cover before accepting products.
Can I use packing earnings as the value of an insurance claim?
No. Work fees describe your earnings; inventory evidence describes the products. Any compensation depends on the facts, relevant responsibility and applicable policy or transport conditions.
Sources
Have a suitable storage space and want to understand the work before accepting a shop’s goods? Read the sender process and agree ownership, storage and insurance responsibilities first.
Read the home sender process