Business, commercial and property insurance policies are quite lengthy documents. If you have a claim or an issue with your policy, you will need to refer to the document.
This can be quite a daunting task. Your insurance broker will talk about certain technical elements of the policy. One of these is the perils that are covered. When we talk about perils, these are the events or risks that insurers will consider paying out on, if they cause damage or loss to your property.
Commercial buildings insurance covers the structure or fabric of a building, ie the floors, walls and roof.
The standard perils covered, by nearly all commercial policies are:-
1 – Fire (including arson by third parties)
2 – Explosion
3 – Aircraft (as in crashing into the building)
4 – Storm or Flood (storm would include weight of snow)
5 – Escape of water (including from burst pipes and water tanks)
6 – Impact (by own/third party vehicles and/or animals)
7 – Riot and Malicious Persons (riot as defined in legislation)
8 – Theft (including attempted theft)
9 – Breakage or collapse of aerials or TV masts (this doesn’t have to be caused by storm)
10 – Leakage of fuel (burst pipes cover requires a physical burst, leakage of fuel can be for any accidental reason)
In addition, you can buy cover for accidental damage and subsidence, heave and landslip. Later posts will cover this in more detail.