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.