Business insurance for furniture & home businesses
Protect your furniture and home business with insurance tailored to your activity
Whether you run a furniture and decor shop, a homeware and electrical retailer, or work as an interior decorator, your work puts you around customers, their homes, and their belongings. Public Liability covers you when something goes wrong.
Business insurance, done differently.
Fully online business insurance in Ireland.
A few questions and you're covered.
No lock-in, no long contracts.
Excess from €0, up to €6.5 million of cover.
Our insurance is for
Why business insurance is essential for furniture and home businesses
Selling furniture and homeware or designing interiors puts you in daily contact with clients, the public and other people's property. From a showroom floor to an install in a client's home, these activities share common exposures:
Damage during delivery and installation: a wall or floor marked while fitting a wardrobe, or an appliance knocked in a client's home.
Accidents on your premises: a customer slipping on a wet showroom floor, or an item falling during a demonstration.
Design advice that turns out wrong: specification or recommendation that leaves a client out of pocket.
Something you sold causing harm: a piece that fails in use and injures someone or damages their home.
Cover built around your work
Public Liability covers injury or property damage you cause to others, and every furniture and home business can take it out. If you design interiors, you can add Professional Indemnity for the financial loss a client suffers because of a mistake in your work. Professional indemnity applies to design work, not to retail. You describe your activities at sign-up, so your cover matches what you actually do.
What is Public Liability insurance?
How does public liability work? If a third party, like a client or a member of the public, holds you responsible for an injury or for damage to their property, public liability insurance takes care of your defence costs and any compensation due.
What does it cover? Injury or property damage caused to others in the course of your work. You choose a cover limit of €1.25 million, €2.5 million or €6.5 million per claim. Optional covers can be added: Employers' Liability (€13 million per claim) if you have staff, and Third-party objects and sites for damage to equipment or premises of others in your care (up to €5,000 per claim).
Cover that fits your profession. You describe your activities fully at sign-up, and your cover matches what you actually do: selling furniture, homeware and decor, delivering and installing items in clients' homes, or advising on interior design.
Your excess. The amount you pay yourself towards a claim. The options are €0, €250, €500, €1,000 and €2,500, with €0 and €250 available up to €500,000 annual revenue; above that the minimum is €500.
Is it mandatory? Public Liability isn't required by law in Ireland. That said, shopping centres, landlords and clients often ask for proof of cover before you can trade from a unit or start work on their premises. Cover starts from €7.55 per month.
Who needs it? Furniture and homeware retailers, interior decorators and designers, and anyone selling or fitting home products who deals with the public or works in clients' homes.
What is Professional Indemnity insurance?
Professional indemnity covers the purely financial loss a client suffers because of a mistake in your work: wrong advice, a miscalculation, a missed detail, or an error in something you delivered. It doesn't cover injury or damage to property, which is Public Liability.
What counts as a professional mistake? FSpecifying the wrong materials, a plan that doesn't meet the agreed brief, or advice that leaves a client with extra costs to put things right.
Who is it for? Interior decorators and designers, and anyone doing spatial design work. If you only sell furniture, homeware or electrical goods, public liability is the cover that fits.
How does the cover respond? It's written on a claims-made basis: the claim must be made and reported to us while your policy runs.
Switching to us from another insurer? Work from up to 5 years back is covered, provided your previous policy would have covered the claim.
Leaving? Claims about work done while you were insured must be reported before your policy ends, unless run-off cover is arranged.
Cover that fits your profession. You select your activities when you apply, so the policy and its exclusions match what you actually advise on and deliver. Keep in mind that promising or guaranteeing results is excluded. You choose a cover limit from €125,000 up to €1.25 million per claim, and up to twice that per insurance year; Professional Indemnity starts from €10.80 per month.
Which cover do you need?
Most businesses are exposed to both. One covers injury and damage, the other financial loss from your work. You can combine them in one Insify policy. Cover limits, excess and exclusions apply. See the policy wording.
Public Liability insurance
Covers claims when your work injures someone or damages something that belongs to them. For example, someone trips over your equipment, or you damage a floor while working at a client's premises.
- Choose your cover: from €1.25 million up to €6.5 million per claim, and up to twice that per insurance year
- Excess from €0, depending on your turnover
- Staff? Add optional Employers' Liability with €13 million cover per claim
- Most relevant when your work brings you into contact with clients, the public, their premises or their belongings
Professional Indemnity insurance
Covers purely financial loss a client suffers through a professional mistake, oversight or wrong advice, with no injury or property damage involved. Think of work a client claims was unfit for purpose and cost them money.
- Choose your cover: from €125,000 up to €1.25 million per claim, and up to twice that per insurance year
- Excess from €0, depending on your turnover
- Most relevant when clients pay you for advice, programmes and plans
What's covered
Use of land, buildings or premises for the insured activity
Stationary and online trade in home furniture as well as home textiles and lighting items
Design of business, store, office and home furnishings (textiles, works of art, furniture, media)
Planning of illumination, lighting and sun protection
Design of exhibitions, stands and shop windows
Interior advice
Site visits
Optional Third-party objects and sites (up to €5,000 per claim)
Optional Employers' Liability (€13 million per claim) if you have staff
Architectural and/or engineering services outside of interior design such as planning, construction or calculation of factories, buildings, machines, bridges, tunnels and other structures as well as construction and/or project supervision thereof
Warranty promises and promises of success, in particular promises and declarations relating to the completion of an object or parts of an object
Industrial design
Exceeding the construction time as well as own deadlines and dates
Exceeding cost estimates or cost calculations as far as these are expenses that would have been incurred anyway if the object had been properly planned and constructed (business-as-usual costs)
A contractual clause increasing liability (such as a fine, indemnity, warranty, performance commitment)
Cover and exclusions shown are indicative and non-contractual. Only the terms of your policy apply.
Some examples
A customer tripped over a display plinth in a furniture showroom and fractured a wrist. Public liability covered the compensation and the associated legal costs.
While delivering and installing a wardrobe, a fitter scratched a client's hardwood floor and chipped a doorframe. Public liability paid for the repairs.
An interior decorator specified an unsuitable floor finish for a bathroom that had to be removed and replaced. Professional indemnity covered the client's financial loss.
A customer tripped over a display plinth in a furniture showroom and fractured a wrist. Public liability covered the compensation and the associated legal costs.
While delivering and installing a wardrobe, a fitter scratched a client's hardwood floor and chipped a doorframe. Public liability paid for the repairs.
An interior decorator specified an unsuitable floor finish for a bathroom that had to be removed and replaced. Professional indemnity covered the client's financial loss.
Examples are for illustrative purposes only. Compensation depends on the exact circumstances of the claim. No rights can be derived from these examples.
Your business insurance with Insify SmartGuide
Taking out insurance can be quick. Making sure you have the right cover is another matter. With Insify SmartGuide, you don't sign a contract blindly. You ask all your questions, and get clear, immediate and personalised answers, before you take out a policy.
Are you covered if you accidentally damage a client's equipment while working?
What excess should you choose?
Are you protected in the event of a dispute with a client?
Insify SmartGuide guides you step by step to understand what's covered, what isn't, and why. In just a few clicks, you build insurance that's truly tailored to your business, with complete confidence. Try Insify SmartGuide. Understand your insurance before you need it.
More than 40,000 entrepreneurs trust us
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Public liability isn't required by law in Ireland. In practice, though, it is often expected before you can operate: shopping centres and landlords usually ask for proof of cover before letting a retail unit, and clients may require it before you start an installation or a design project in their home. Having cover in place also reassures customers that any accidental injury or damage will be handled properly. Cover for the sector starts from €7.55 per month.
Public liability covers injury or property damage you cause to other people in the course of your work, for example a customer hurt in your showroom or a floor damaged during a delivery. Professional indemnity covers the purely financial loss a client suffers because of a mistake in your professional work, such as an interior designer specifying the wrong materials. If a decorator's error means a finished room has to be redone, professional indemnity responds to the client's financial loss, whereas public liability would respond if a client tripped over materials on site. Note that professional indemnity is available on interior design work, not on retail.
You will usually want both, and you will need the design activity on your policy to get professional indemnity. Public liability protects you against the everyday risks of running a shop and delivering or installing goods, where a member of the public could be injured or a client's property damaged. Professional indemnity protects the advisory side of your work, where a mistake in a design or specification causes a client a financial loss rather than physical damage. When you get a quote you describe everything you do, and the cover is built to match that mix of activities.
The excess is the part of a claim you pay yourself before Insify pays the rest. For example, if a claim is settled at €4,000 and your policy has a €250 excess, you would pay the €250 and Insify would cover the remaining €3,750. The options are €0, €250, €500, €1,000 and €2,500, with €0 and €250 available up to €500,000 annual revenue; above that the minimum is €500. A higher excess usually means a lower premium, so it is a trade-off between what you pay now and what you would pay if a claim arises.
Yes. The important thing is to declare all of your activities when you apply, so your policy reflects the full range of what you do, from the retail space to deliveries and on-site fitting. Cover responds to the activities you have declared, so leaving something out could mean a related claim is not paid. If your business changes or you add a new service, update your details so your cover keeps pace.