As office, retail stores and recreational spaces have closed with workers being furloughed or able to work from home where possible, there may be confusion about whether you need to inform your insurer or whether your equipment is covered.

Admiral Home Insurance said insurers usually need to be told if certain things change after you buy your policy.

However, if you’re doing clerical or admin work from home on a computer, such as reading, marking or emails, it may not be necessary to contact your insurer.

You should check your policy to see if you’re covered for business use, if for example you’ll have visitors to your home for business purposes (though given the current social-distancing measures this may not be practical, or essential as part of government guidelines), or if you are keeping business stock at home.

If you’re using company property such as a laptop or mobile, you should check with your employer whether it has the correct insurance policy in place to cover these items outside of the usual place of work should any damage, loss or theft occur.

This would not usually be covered by an employee’s standard household insurance, according to Admiral but if in doubt it’s best to check policy documents.

Noel Summerfield, head of Admiral Home Insurance said: “In response to the coronavirus pandemic, a large number of businesses will now have thousands of employees working from home rather than from their usual office in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.

“It’s important that people get everything in order when they swap their office desk for the kitchen table and start using their home as a regular place of work.

“Having the wrong insurance in place could prove costly for everyone involved so making sure that the right policy is in place is crucial and means that people can safely work from home with the peace of mind that their property and contents – or those of their employees – are sufficiently covered.”