When arranging your shop insurance, you really have three types of cover.

Firstly, commercial building insurance for the structure if you own or are responsible for the cover.

Secondly, your public, products and employers liability.

And lastly, your cover for the contents, such as stock, business equipment, money and business interruption.

Commercial insurance companies combine these covers into a shop insurance package policy to save you the trouble of arranging separate individual policies.

In line with all other commercial insurance policies, the theft cover is restricted. The restricted theft cover excludes damage unless as a result of forcible and violent entry to or exit from the premises.

This raises the question of who insures roller shutters? If they are installed by the shopkeeper (which they usually are) then who insures them? They are a fitted structure to the building, but are an improvement. These need to be insured under “tenants improvements”. Commercial policies will all allow this type of cover, but it is optional.

Roller shutters are damaged quote often, either maliciously or during attempted or actual thefts. Shopkeepers need to ensure that their policy has cover for tenants improvements otherwise they may find that their “contents only” package policy excludes cover.

The good thing is, that tenants improvements is much cheaper than contents to add. In an inner city area, to add cover for £2,000 of roller shutters would normally add about £20 to the annual premium. It is not only shopkeepers that need to worry about whether this is covered. Restaurant insurance and takeaway insurance policies are designed in exactly the same way, with the tenants improvements as an optional cover.

There are very few takeaway businesses in the UK that do not offer some sort of delivery service. It has become part of modern life that if you go into a takeaway on a Friday or Saturday night, you will see someone hanging around with either cardboard pizza boxes at the ready or one of those garish insulated picnic boxes that we used to have in the 70’s and 80’s.

If these people are driving their own cars then you need to make sure that they have their own business car insurance, it is not the responsibility of the takeaway owner. However, if the delivery person causes damage to someones property or someone complains that, say, your containers leaked at their house, then you need to check you have adequate takeaway insurance cover.

Owners of takeaway all know the main types of cover they need, including the legally required employers liability insurance.

Some takeaway policies do not automatically provide for public liability insurance in respect of deliveries and the drivers doing the deliveries.

Whilst it is potentially a small problem only, you do not want to be faced with a £500 bill for repairing or replacing someones carpet. Your business insurance broker will be able to confirm whether you have this cover or not. If you do not have it, it should be added free of charge or at the very most £25 per year.

If you have a home insurance policy and you are unfortunate to suffer a broker window you will normally follow a standard process. You will clear up the mess, cover the window and then dig out your insurance policy and use the emergency helpline number to get a new glazier.

As you are more then likely to be living at the property, it will be relatively secure.

There is a difference then for the commercial property owner, when they suffer a smashed window at 3 o’clock on Sunday morning. It is not quote so easy to go trough the above process, particularly if your property is nowhere near where you live.

What you want is a commercial building insurance policy that will allow you to cal a 24 hour emergency glazing company and get them to meet you at the premises at an agreed time. This way you just need to turn up, let them in and the job is done. Many major commercial insurers have this service available and you do not need to go through the laborious process of competing a claim form. You just pay the £100 or £200 excess to the glaziers and that is it, finished.

If you do have commercial property insurance, as the nights start to close in and the pubs stay open later and later, now is the time to check that your insurers offer this service to you.

It is relatively easy to work out how many pubs, shops, hotels or restaurants there are in the UK. A combination of government and industry statistics means that we can calculate for example that there are in the region of 50,000 pubs. This is a reducing figure unfortunately due to the recession and is down on the 60,000+ there used to be pre 2007.

One type of business where it is more difficult to estimate is the number of offices. Office insurance is big business as you will know through drivind through any town or city in the country. Nearly every commercial building has some form of office accommodation. Whilst there are sadly many more empty due to the financial crisis, there are still tens of thousands of businesses operating from their own individual office.

We have a range of products for businesses looking for an office insurance quote. One of the key areas of cover that should now be considered by every business is commercial legal expenses insurance.

Whilst all types of insurance are for “once in a blue moon” events, some are more costly than others. Having an employee take a business to a tribunal is a costly process, and as we have found out even if the employee is making everything up, you still have to go through the tribunal process.

We now have office package products which automatically include this cover. If your existing broker has not included this cover for you, you know what to do!

The UK had it’s first approved Takaful Insurance company in 2007 with Salaam Halal Insurance.

Takaful insurance is different to traditional insurance. The concept is known as Takaful (meaning “to guarantee each other“) and is a shariah compliance mutual risk transfer. The main difference between Takaful and traditional insurance lies in the way the risk is considered and administered and how the insurance fund, or float, is managed.

Salaam Halal needed to raise millions of pounds in capital, which although successful did not get to the £80,000,000 they were hoping.

The products where only domestic, such as car and home, with future plans to move into the commercial insurance arena.

All current policyholders are fully protected and as the company is in “run off” the current policies wil continue to their expiry date.

Their website Salaam Halal gives more information for current policyholders.

Key person insurance, or as it is still called in some businesses, keyman insurance, provides an element of cover is one or more “key” individuals in a business are incapacitated. If they are unable to work then then will be a requirement to hire in a replacement and to do this fast.

Key person also provides lump sum payments for different events such as accidental death and/or long term illness.

It used to be that general insurance brokers sold home, car and business insurance whereas keyperson was sold by IFA’s or independent financial advisers. The reason being that this needed to be sold correctly, in conjunction with other types of life and sickness insurance cover.

This is still the case as life versus general still requires a different type of broker or adviser due to the sheer complexity of each type of product.

We do now have a limited key person cover, included as standard, from one of our insurers. No , it is not free but there is no reduction fro removing the cover, the approximate cost for one key individual up to £25,000 benefit is £25 per annum.

The main products where this is included are restaurant, shop, pub and takeaway insurance. It is also available on hotel insurance products. The beauty is that the company providing it are so competitive, even with the extra cover they are still better than the market in most cases.

Everyone and every business is allowed a choice, we have to accept this.

In the commercial property insurance world, insurers are allowed to be fickle as well. Some insurers don’t like individual flats in blocks, others don’t like empty properties and most do not like properties let to tenants who are on referral from a local authority or receiving housing benefit.

It does not mean in any way, shape or form that the insurers are acting in a sanctimonious manner. It is purely down to money (isn’t it always).

Insurers want to underwrote risks where they will make money, which is understandable. They decide based on theirs and other openly available statistics. Properties with DSS tenants tend to suffer a higher proportion of losses. For this reason, unless you are insuring a lost of them, you cannot get the economies of scale to make money. Therefore, the insurers that want DSS let properties offer good prices. The insurers that don’t want them either decline to quote or charge astronomical premiums.

The only way to get yourself a decent, competitive quote, for your dss let insurance is through a commercial insurance broker who is able to scour the market on your behalf to see what is available.

Nearly all commercial insurance policies contain theft restrictions relating to breaking in. What this means is that if a theft is to be insured under the policy there needs to be evidence of a break-in or a break out. The break out may seem a bit strange but this means that cover is provided if someone hides on your premises during business hours and then breaks out when you are closed for business.

This is called a forcible and violent theft restriction. Note the AND, this is very important. If it was and/or, then someone simply opening a door, which you forgot to lock, would mean that cover is in place. Legally, a force has been applied to open the door. So, it has to be with force and violence.

Certain policies, such as office insurance, allow for a wider theft cover to apply, which includes theft without evidence of breaking in or out. We have an ongoing claim for a an office where they have lost some electronic equipment and after a couple of weeks of looking, have finally realised that someone must have walked in dressed as a courier and walked out with all their kit, about £5,000 worth.

Luckily, they are insured with one of the main commercial insurers who provide this wider theft cover as standard. Certain insurers either do not provide the cover or you have to actually ask for this extension to be applied, if you have office or surgery insurance (doctors, dentists and vets are usually insured on office policies) then you need to check if you have this wider theft cover.

In 2005 the licensing laws in the UK changed, it was possible to open a licensed premises for 24 hours. Press reports are mixed on whether this has made the problem of drinking worse.

Each licensee has to apply for their license on an annual basis. During this license application many things are considered, including the regular opening and closing times for the premises.

Commercial insurance companies are interested in the opening and closing hours of the premises they insure, as it is a risk factor.

In the “good old” days, in England and Wales, pubs used to call last orders around 10.30 to 10.50 and closed at 11pm, with Sunday usually closing at 10.30. If a pub was open later then there was the potential for more damage to be caused (ie malicious from inebriated customers leaving) or increased likelihood of public liability claims from inebriated customers slipping, tripping and falling.

So, when asking for a pub insurance quote, one of the questions is “what are your opening hours?”. 24 hour opening does not mean that every pub in the land is open late, but there are many premises where their license allows midnight, 1am and 2am closing on a few days every week. This is the information that must be declared when getting your cover. Check the small print of your current policy as you may only be insured based on pre-midnight opening.

One of the few Shariah compliant insurers, Salaam Halal, has reported that 1 in 7 of us admit to lying to get a cheaper insurance quote as reported by the Coalition against Insurance Fraud.

Anecdotal research also suggests that as people are purchasing their insurance cover via the telephone and internet more, they find it easier to lie. Everyone has been a child and everyone learns as they grow up that it is not as easy to tell a lie when you are facing someone. Answering questions on a website means people are more inclined to tell a few fibs if it saves them money. Of course, in recessionary 2009 people are even more inclined to lie to save money.

Whether it is house, car or business insurance that you are purchasing (and potentially lying to get cheaper) we can guarantee that insurers are looking ever closer at each and every claim.

Insurers are suffering from increased clams frequencies in the recession as well. We can only speak for commercial insurance but there is evidence that the sorts of things that people would not bother claiming for a few years ago are now being pursued vigorously, every penny counts.

This means that if you choose to tell a small lie (ie not declaring the claim you had three years ago) to save money there is an increasing likelihood that you will be found out. The problem is that you are only found out (usually) when you have made a legitimate claim. This claim is then repudiated (turned down) and you will face increasing difficulty in getting insurance again.

This is a particular issue with the sites that offer to compare business insurance quotes. Business owners may feel less inclined to put in all of the information about their business. They then receive what looks to be a very competitive quote and the temptation to take the policy, to save money, proves too great for some.

Only in the small print do they declare how risky it is to lie. When you speak to a business insurance broker, they will ask you the specific questions about your claims history and other information so that you know and appreciate the need to declare the truth.

Don’t lie to get a cheaper quote, the risk is simply not worth it.