Archive for April, 2010

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Compare business insurance quotes

Friday, April 30th, 2010

We all know, in 2010, that if you look around long and hard enough you will be able to find a good deal on everything that costs your business money, with one exception. That exception is, unfortunately, tax. You don’t have a choice in how much you pay and you cannot get away without paying as there is only one place your taxes go, UK plc.

To make up for this burden on businesses, you shoudl spend a bit of time seeing if you can save some money on the other areas of business where savings are to be had.

For example, if you are looking for a small business insurance quote be careful about who you go to for different prices. There are numerous websites popping up all over the web that offer different services aimed at reducing your premiums. Welcome to the websites that promise to compare business insurance quotes, but what do they really do?

Technically, to offer a comparison service you only need to have two insurers. You then obtain a price from the both and compare this. The sites are based solely on pushing you to pick the cheapest. But you have to consider more than just the price. We understand that this is the major factor, but you also have to think about any onerous terms and conditions and also big excesses.

This is why we always recommend that you only speak to a broker to get a proper comparison. They have full and detailed knowledge of every insurance companies offer, products and prices. Let them do the comparing for you and the good thing is that if, later down the line, you feel you have been mis-sold a policy, you have full rights to pursue a formal complaint against the particular broker or insurer. Go to a comparison website and you are on your own.

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Takeaway insurance – frozen food cover restrictions

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Everyone accepts that a standard, run of the mill, business insurance quote will contain terms, warranties, excesses and exclusions. If you then proceed to take out the quote, then your policy cover is based on the particular policy from the insurer concerned.

No-one can, or will, expect a policy to pay out on every single claim or loss. The whole point of insurance is that it provides you with financial protection in the event of an unforeseen loss.

If you can reasonably foresee that a loss will occur, then technically it is not covered. If you think of commercial building insurance, if you do not maintain your property and the roof has cracked, holes and all sort of vegetation growing out of it, if there is a water leak into the property then insurers can, quote rightly, turn down the claim for lack of maintenance or care.

As far as takeaway insurance is concerned, this cover is based on a policy wording as well. One area of essential cover is for frozen food. Most takeaways wil have stock that is refrigerated or frozen. If there is a break down of this freezer than it can cause a loss of stock.

Most insurers we deal with offer a limit of £1,000 or £2,000 for this section, so it can be a big loss. But, please read through your terms. Nearly all insurers insist on the freezer being less than 5 years old. The reason being that it can be reasonably assumed that an older freezer may fail. If this is the case, and you have a good quality freezer over 5 years old, then your insurers may provide cover if you can prove that you have the freezer annually inspected and maintained.

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Restaurant insurance – can I get a multi-location policy?

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

If you have spent years of your time, invested money and devoted all of your efforts to building a successful business, what is your next step? There are three simple ones for you to consider.

Firstly, continue to build up the business and do the things that you know your customers like and want. Secondly, you could decide to sell up. And thirdly, you may decide that your formula for business success is so good that you want to open up additional businesses. All three of these are excellent ways forward. But what happens to your restaurant insurance, if you want to pursue the third option and expand your business empire?

In 2010, most business insurance policies offer the option of adding further premises to your main policy. There are benfits to this, you will only have one policy, one renewal date and one monthly instalment. There are also downsides because it will be difficult to separate out the insurance costs unless each business is identical. Whilst you always have to decalre claims or losses, if you have two separate policies you are less likely to see an increase on both policies.

As we always recommend, you should arrange your cover through a business insurance broker. Their job and role is to guide and help you through every step of the process. If they think you will get a better discount from the same insurer, they will be able to speak to the insurer to make sure that you don’t lose out either step of the way. The key thing is for them to make sure that you get the best premium and the best cover.

Multi-location premises are easily available, but certain direct insurers may try to suggest that you cannot put on one policy. If this is the case, and you want one policy, you should speak to an alternative provider as the option is always available for you if required.

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Commercial building insurance – what sum insured?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

2008, 2009 and now 2010 – if you haven’t already noticed, then it is becoming more and more obvious that the recession has absolutely shot to pieces the high property valuations that we saw in 2007.

Property prices were the hot topic, how much had yours grown in the past month! Anyone with any sense, or a memory of previous crashes, knew that it was not going to last, but nobody quite believed it would be such a sustained growth.

But, as with businesses, the bigger they are the harder they fall and boy, property prices, particularly commercial, where big, big, big. As property prices increased so did the rebuilding costs, which is a major factor in any commercial property insurance policy.

If you don’t insure for the correct building sum insured then, you could lose out in the event of a loss. You can over insure, but under insure and you are penalised.

In 2010 though, we are seeing something unprecedented in the business building insurance market. 0% index linking has arrived and it looks like it will stay for a few months. Now though is a good time to review the amounts you are insured for. Not, to reduce them but, shock, horror to may be increase them. We are still finding many policyholders with sums insured that are inadequate, but with the property market still being in the doldrums, now is the best time to get a professional survey undertaken because the costs will never be so low.

It may cost a few hundred pounds (for an independent survey) but you really should, at least every five years, get an independent valuation.

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iphones – how is yours insured?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

The last few weeks have been full of speculation about an alleged latest generation iphone that was “found” in a toilet. Now, potentially this could have been done on purpose, by Apple, to act as a tease or it really was just lost/stolen.

Now, with Apple’s profits being in the hundreds of millions of dollars, this is not something that they will claim on their business or office insurance policy for. If you have any iphones or other expensive smart phones in your business, it is worth spending a few minutes to think about where yours are insured. You may have got these free as part of your mobile phone contract, but lose one and you will soon find out the replacement cost is nearer to £500.

If you have a few of these spread amongst the workforce then you need to make sure that your commercial insurance policy provides cover. Not only whilst they are at the business premises but while they are out an about with your employees. Given the phones are relatively thin and “smooth” then you would not be surprised at how many are simply lost from pockets or dropped. With so much technology crammed into such a small space, the potential for beyond repair damage is very high.

One final thing to recoemmend is that you buy a handful of cheap mobiles, either new or off ebay that are sim unlocked and give these to your employees as emergencies until your insurance repalcement one turns up.

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Caveat emptor

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Commercial insurance policies can be extremely lengthy, unwieldy and difficult to understand. However, the whole point about the insurance policy is that it is a legal contract between you, the business owner and an insurance company or some other form of insurance provider (ie Lloyds Underwriter, Managing General Agency).

If it comes to it, the policy will be considered in the minutest detail between legal parties in a UK court of law. If your policy does not pay out for a claim which you believe is covered then you have every right to contest this.

Thankfully, there are avenues you can go down without having to end up with a huge legal cost. These avenues, in the main, apply to what are termed small business insurance policies ie those businesses with a turnover of less than £1,000,000. In reality, this covers approximately 98% of businesses in the UK. You can refer a complaint in the first instance to the adviser, your business insurance broker, who sold you the policy, then to the insurer and then to the insurance ombudsman.

But, at all times the latin phrase Caveat Emptor must be borne in mind. Simply translated, this means “buyer beware”. The general rule is that it is up to the buyer to to check out or find out about what they are buying. This does not mean that you need to become an expert in policy wordings, but as a business owner you are deemed to be sensible enough to make a decision based on looking at the options.

You will have a come back if you have been mis-sold a policy, but if referred to the ombudsman then it may be that the phrase caveat emptor is quoted to you. When you receive a policy or a quote, you will be advised to read through this and if there are any errors to go back to your broker or provider. We urge you to spend just an hour or so reading through your policy, especially the terms and conditions, to make sure that it is suitable for you.

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Salon insurance – how wide is your public liability cover?

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Salon insurance is available for most types of beauty related trades, primarily hairdressers, barbers and beauty establishments.

Your policy will include different covers, including public liability insurance. There is an important distinction with this cover, it either includes “treatment insurance” or it doesn’t.

But what does this actually mean? Public liability is your responsibility, at law, as the business owner, for injury, illness, disease or damage to third party persons or property.

But, treatment cover is usually excluded. Therefore, if you apply the wrong strength of hair dye or the cream you use on someones skin burns them, then you will, in this day and age, more than likely receive a complaint or a claim.

You would be amazed at how much pain people can suddenly be in once they have spoken to a solicitor. A slight itching on their scalp can turn into three weeks off work and lots of pain and suffering. Why? Because there is always the potential that they will get some money from you.

This is where you need to ensure, without fail, that your salon or hairdressers insurance policy includes wider treatment cover. If you have a policy, dig it out and speak to your broker or adviser and get them to confirm that you have this cover and the amount insured. If you do not have it, make sure that it is added to your policy very, very soon!

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Commercial legal expenses insurance

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Business insurance is a strange product, you are buying something that you grudge paying for and you hope that you will never use. What you don’t want is someone to sell it to you as a result of scaremongering. Of course there are the once in a blue moon events that really will scare you if you think what the potential cost could be without insurance.

One of the lesser purchased products is commercial legal expenses insurance. As an employer, one of the hardest things to deal with is the legislation associated with actually employing staff. Not only does it change very often, you are also faced with the potential of extremely costly law suits from disgruntled employees.

Imagine the scenario were an employee is off sick for weeks, and then you receive a solicitors letter alleging that you have discriminated against the employee in some way. You could be faced with a huge bill, even if the employee doesn’t have a “legal” leg to stand on. This is where you need legal expenses cover. As soon as you receive such a letter, or become aware of the potential of a claim, you just need to notify your insurers. They will want to appoint their own panel of solicitors to deal with the claim, so what you must not do is to appoint your own solicitors as you may not receive full reimbursement.

The two things to remember are firstly you must buy the cover and secondly buy it from an independent business insurance broker who will help and guide you every step of the way.

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Combined liability insurance

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

In a standard commercial insurance policy, you may have one or all three of the “standard” liabilities, employers, products and public liability insurance. If you have a claim made against your business, for example if a product you supply causes an injury, then you will usually have a valid claim under the products liability.

For products liability, you will have an overall limit of indemnity, usually £2,000,000, and this will cover claims totalling this amount in any one period of insurance. ie you can have four claims at £500,000 but not five, as this will exceed the limit. The cost of defending an action against you is also covered which is vitally important. These additional legal costs are paid in addition to the limit of indemnity. The main reasoning is that insurers want to be able to control the claim from the outset to ensure that only valid claims are settled.

The other two liability covers, public and employers liability, tend to have a limit of indemnity any one claim. So, under you public liability it can be five claims at £2,000,000 and for employers liability the minimum legal limit of indemnity os £5,000,000 so the potential cost could be huge.

These three liabilities are usually called the combined liability insurance if bought as a separate policy.

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Restaurant insurance – EL is vital

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

You have two choices when purchasing restaurant insurance, you either get a packaged policy or you get a bespoke policy inlcuding the sections of cover you specifically require.

Nine times out of ten, you will find that if you deal through a business insurance broker, you will be sold an off the shelf, package policy. This is the simplest, most economic way of arranging the cover.

However, in certain cases your broker may decide that the best way for you to cover, or protect, your business, is to have a special policy built just for your needs. For example, if you have restaurant, with a shop and guest house, then this is not usually suitable for the package concept. You will need to have what is called a commercial combined insurance policy. Your broker will declare all the business activities that you undertake. The policy will have a section for the business description to be declared. 

The insurer will include certain sections of cover as requested. If you have employees, even if it is just family members that “help out”, then you must have employers liability insurance. It is the brokers job to recommend to you the cover that you need. As part of this job, the broker will recommend that you have employers liability cover in force.

As with every legal document though, you are obliged to look through the wording and to read and understand what cover is provided. Do not assume that the broker has not made any errors. Whilst the likelihood is very, very low that an error is made, you should always check that you have employers liability or EL, and that you have a certificate of employers liability.

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