Adding My Employer As an Additional Insured?

[Anon-e-Mouse]

Jurisdiction

Wisconsin

My employer canceled the leases on several buildings to consolidate space. I am in a group that is "indefinitely" assigned to work 100% from home. Basically they have no room to give us office space, so that's why we're working from home.

They just sent around a new set of WFH rules. One of them says that people working from home need to add the employer as an "Additional Insured" on our homeowner's insurance policy.

I don't know what that means, but I'm honestly kind of afraid to contact my insurance company and ask. What I'm afraid of is that they're going to say, oh, well you need Business Insurance not private homeowner insurance, and that's going to be a lot more expensive.

The other kind of problematic thing is that I'm not actually living at home right now. My spouse and I are temporarily separated (and attending counseling) and I don't know if or when I might be moving back, or whether this might end up in divorce, or what. That's why we're in counseling, to try to sort that out. I am currently staying in a motel where I'm renting a room by the month. My homeowner insurance doesn't cover me or my stuff at the motel (I already asked).

I don't know if I can get any kind of insurance that will cover me in the motel, that I can add my employer to as an Additional Insured. But I do know that I don't want to have to explain my living situation to my employer.

I didn't ask to work from home. I was told I have to. I am working and getting my employer's work done. I don't want my employer to know all the dirty details of my personal life, and I don't think they should have to. But this Insurance requirement is throwing me for a loop.

What can I do about the Insurance thing, and maybe before that, what exactly is it that my employer is telling me I need to do regarding insurance?

 

[army judge]

Have you investigated RENTER'S INSURANCE?

 

[Anon-e-Mouse]

No I haven't. I didn't know that it was possible to get RENTERS INSURANCE for a motel room, but I will check into it. Is this something I should look into every time I travel, or just this time?

Also does anyone know what the "Additional Insured" thing means? To me it sounds like I'm paying to insure my employer with my own personal insurance policy, which seems strange to me.

Is this a totally normal ordinary thing that everybody who works from home always does, and I just never heard of it because I'm ignorant? Or is it unusual and something I should be concerned about?

 

[adjusterjack]

No I haven't. I didn't know that it was possible to get RENTERS INSURANCE for a motel room, but I will check into it. Is this something I should look into every time I travel, or just this time?

You should be able to get it once and then just update your address when you move. Except, when you move to another state you might have to get a new policy and cancel the old one, unless maybe it's a national insurance company.

Also does anyone know what the "Additional Insured" thing means?

It's an additional insured for your liability coverage. If you do something while you are working and your employer gets included in the lawsuit (common) your insurance policy defends him along with you.

Ask for it when you apply for your policy. You can't hide it. If the insurance company says no, relay that to your employer. He may learn that other employees may not be able to get it.