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Archive for July, 2010

Unoccupied building insurance – commercial

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

If you have a domestic, or house insurance policy, in the terms and conditions, it will state that normal cover applies, as long as the home is not empty for either 30, 45 or 60 consecutive days, depending on the insurer.

If you have a commercial building insurance policy, you will find that it is slightly more restrictive. Again, it depends on the business insurance company that you have, how restrictive the terms are if your building is empty.

You can either have a policy that is normally for a tenanted property, which will automotically restrict cover as soon as the property becomes untenanted.

The other option, is to have a policy that is specifically designed for unoccupied building insurance. The insurers are aware at inception, or the start, of the policy that the property is empty, so you are clear straight away about what cover you do, or do not, get.

Some insurers are very cautious and will offer fire, lightning, explosion, aircraft and property owners liability. Given the number of unoccupied properties that are spread throughout the land, certain insurers have seen this as a bonus and have designed wider ranging products that give better cover.

You may have to pay more money, but you can get storm, theft and malicious damage cover. You will never get fixed glass cover, because empty buildings, unfortunately, attract vandalism. Burst pipes cover can be bought, but this can be an expensive option as it is only provided if you drain down the tanks and the water pipes.

To get the best cover, speak to a broker.

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Commercial insurance – why this is vital for your business.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

This may seem to be a simple enough statement to make and most owners would quite happily agree.

We have, in the UK as in the rest of the world, been through the worst recession in living memory. We are still feeling the after effects and the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition emergency austerity budget is not going to do any favours, short term, to helping Joe public have more cash to spend.

As businesses continue to suffer, many are looking to cut costs to the bone as their very survival can be at stake. One of the areas where some people may think they can save money, is through cutting the cover on, or stopping paying, their business insurance.

The rationale may seem simple, you have paid insurance for a number of years and have never made a claim, so what harm is their in stopping the cover for a while.

The very nature of business is that a claim can occur at any point, think about public liability insurance, you may not have claimed for years, but you just know that the likelihood of you causing damage to someones property never decreases. The same business risks that caused you to buy the cover in the first place have not disappeared.

It could well be that you have not been paying the best, open market, price or premium. Rather than simply paring down your cover or cancelling your policy, take the chance to speak to business insurance broker and get them to do a full review of all your covers and policies. It could well be that enough of a saving can be made, without reducing your cover, to prevent you having to trade uninsured.

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Shop insurance – shoplifting cover.

Friday, July 9th, 2010

One of the issues that we, as a business insurance broker, face is that we may sell a policy which a customer feels should cover everything.

I remember years ago, hearing an extremely un-professional broker saying to a customer that the shop insurance quote he had just provided, would give “all the cover you would ever want and all the cover you would ever need”.

There is no such thing as a policy that covers everything. There are certain basic principles of insurance. One of these is that an insurance policy should cover you for unexpected events. If you know that something is going to happen, then you cannot reasonably expect to insure against it. For example, if you do not maintain your building, or repair loose slates or tiles etc, then it is reasonable to expect that you will suffer a bigger claim at some point in the future, say for storm damage.

There are other covers, which are not available because it can be reasonably expected, as a business risk, that they will happen. One of these is shoplifting cover. A standard, run of the mill, shop insurance policy will include theft cover. But, to have a valid theft claim, you need to be able to prove that someone broke in, or broke out of the property. Unexplained stock disappearances, such as shoplifting cannot be covered. If you were able to get the cover, what onus is there upon you to prevent theft?

If you knew there was a policy in place, then you would not need to take any steps to prevent theft. So, the retail industry and comercial insurance companies have accepted that this is not cover that can be provided.

The Financial Services Authority, which in the middle of 2010, still controls the business insurance industry, states that we have to provide full information to customers, prior to any sale. The scenario mentioned above, will not happen again, because you have to receive, within 30 days of the cover starting, full details of your policy cover with exclusions, limitations, conditions, warranties and excesses.

Posted in business insurance, shop insurance quote | No Comments »

Pub insurance – beer leakage cover.

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

When you take out, or incept, a business insurance policy, you want to make sure that every possible eventuality is covered.

There are, understandably, certain types of cover which cannot be covered. The two main ones are shoplifting and fraud by the owner (including intentional arson).

With most other policies, you will find that there are comprehensive policies that cover most eventualities and more basic policies that only cover certain perils.

The problem you will face, is that whenever you look for a quote, price is the over-riding sales factor. For example, if you look for a pub insurance quote, the chances are you will get a range of quotes with huge price variations.

It is of course tempting to just pick the lowest one, but the problem may be that when you have a claim for one of the lesser known types of cover, you will find that you are not covered.

The post is about beer leakage cover. A barrel of beer will contain roughly 18 gallons, or 140 pints. Many modern pubs do not just connect one barrel up to their beer dispensing systems, some can control a number of barrels form one dispenser.

If this is accidentally knocked or damaged, you can find that you are facing a loss in the many hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, for lost beer. In addition, this leaked beer must go somewhere and the chances are this is going to cause damage as well.

Some policies do not include this cover. So, when you have your claim for the beer lost from three or four barrels, you start to realise that the £100 you saved on your premium was really not worthwhile.

We are not saying that you should always take out the more expensive quote. What we do say is that you need to look for at least three quotes, get them in writing (including email) and spend a bit of time reading through them and comparing the cover under each.

It may well be that the slightly more expensive quote can be paid in interest free instalments, which could give you an instant saving on the price of between 5 and 10% which the cheaper quote may charge for you to pay monthly.

Tags: pub insurance
Posted in business insurance, pub insurance | No Comments »

Three steps to a cheaper business insurance quote

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

If you have been in business for a while, you will know the drill. You need to have insurance, you don’t really want to pay for it (because it is not a “product” you can see, feel or touch) and the prices always seem to be too high.

You can change this though, follow these three steps and you will be able to find a cheap business insurance quote.

Step 1 – Be prepared

The more information you can have available about your business, the better your quote will be. Insurers want to know things about your business that reduce the likelihood of a claim. The sorts of things you can declare, that will reduce your price are:-

a) Whether you have the full quota of fire extinguishers

b) What type of intruder alarm do you have, who installs and maintains it and importantly, do you have Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 Police response.

c) Do you have fire and smoke alarms and are they monitored by a third party, in the event of an activation.

d) Have you undertaken a full Health and Safety and Fire risk assessment?

e) Do you have external grilles or shutters and do they cover every door and window (that is accessible to an intruder)?

f) Do you have CCTV inside and/or is there a council run scheme covering the front and/or rear of your property?

These are just some of the points that certain commercial insurance companies will allow discounts for. But if they don’t know about it, you can’t get a discount.

Step 2 – Get up to date figures.

You only need to insure for the maximum stock or business computers replacement cost. If your stock levels have been reducing, then you only need to insure for these.

Your business computers may be insured for what you paid for them, but costs have been reducing. How much would it cost to replace every single piece of computer equipment? Usually this will be less than half what you paid for it, if you have had it for more than a year.

Step 3 – Go online.

Don’t rely on you local broker or the policy that your bank tries to sell you. Get on the net, find yourself an independent business insurance broker and get them to search and search for you. It does not matter where you are nowadays, you will find a broker that is keen to serve you and they can do this quicker than ever before.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, cheap business insurance quote | No Comments »

Pub insurance quote

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

What is the best way, in 2010, to get a pub insurance quote? This is an extremely difficult question if you sit down at your computer and Google this. You only get a list of 294,000 websites to choose from!

How do you know which one is the best one to visit and will get you the best possible price? This does not have to be a needle in a haystack scenario. Most of the Google hits you are going to get are from business insurance brokers, these are the people you need to go to. Others, will be from single company commercial insurers.

So, why should you go to a broker and not go direct? The simple answer is choice. You do not go to an off-licence that offers one type of beer and one type of wine. What you do is go to one that lets you choose different types, colours, strengths, brands and costs.

It is the same with your insurance, companies that only offer business insurance direct will only offer the one policy. A broker however will be able to go to one, two, three or however many insurers they want to get you the best deal.

There is such a difference in price between the top and the bottom that you cannot possibly be expected to check through every single quote, and the cover and service they provide, yourself.

You could get one quote at £650 and another at £750, the hundred pound difference is important, short term, but what happens if you pick the cheaper one and then find out it is missing some important cover? This is where you realise that the hundred quid you saved is immaterial as your £5,000 claim for an employment tribunal claim goes nowhere as you do not have the cover.

Posted in business insurance, pub insurance quote | No Comments »

Two things you need for cheap business insurance

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Gone are the days when it took many days for you to get a business insurance quote, and your policy took even longer.

In 2010, the British insurance purchasing public are now as savvy as ever and the two things you need for your quote are a computer and a phone.

It used to be that you had to go through a business insurance broker, and a local one at that. If you lived in, for example Birmingham, and phoned a broker in London, the insurers would automatically wonder why you had chosen not to speak to a local company. It was just the way of the world at that time.

Nowadays though, you sit in the Shetland Isles and speak to a broker in Falmouth who will get you a policy from an insurer in London. This blog is simply to confirm that this is now a reality. Gone are the days of the dot.com boom when most of the online businesses where very basic and couldn’t offer good customer service, because they were happy enough to have a website with their name on it.

It is easier than ever now to build your own web prescence, for less than £50. So, you are sitting there with your laptop and your mobile, but how do you know which broker is good and will offer you the service you need in the event of a claim?

The other thing you need to consider, is how well you get on with them when you phone. A simple and basic point maybe, but if they answer the phone quickly, sound professional, give advice confidently and get you a quote, in writing, quickly, this can be half the battle in choosing who is good or bad.

Gut feel is a great thing and you should not always go with the cheapest of the cheap, because we all know in the long run it may cost you more money.

Posted in business insurance broker, business insurance quote | No Comments »

What is a "normal" business insurance claims history?

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

When you are looking for a business insurance quote, you will be asked a number of questions and for information relating to your business. These include financial details, location, type of business and security.

In addition, you will always, without fail, be asked about your claims and/or loss history over the past three or five years. Some insurers will also need to know if you have ever had a claim in excess of £10,000.

The whole point about buying your business or commercial insurance, is that you want to receive a payment in the event of a loss. Of course, the insurers do not want to pay out on claims, but they do (believe it or not) accept that this why they exist.

Before you sit down and make your calls, it is worthwhile considering exactly what is normal as far as claims are concerned. It of course depends on a number of factors, but one claim, every 3 to 5 years is entirely acceptable. Two is unlikely and insurers may start to apply more onerous terms. More than two, and you find insurers will start to stop quoting or only quote if they apply an increased excess.

If you have an adverse, more than three claims in 5 years, history you may find it more difficult to get quotes.

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What is a “normal” business insurance claims history?

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

If you have an adverse, more than three claims in 5 years, history you may find it more difficult to get quotes.

Posted in business insurance, commercial insurance | No Comments »

Business insurance costs – how to work out your monthly instalments

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Whether it is a new business you are setting up or one that has been trading for a while, you will need to work with, and understand, management accounts.

You may well ask exactly what management accounts are. In a large company, they tend to be a monthly snapshot of how the business has performed in the previous calendar month. They can be quite detailed for the biggest firms, because they need to understand how and where the profits (or losses) and costs are occurring or being created.

If you are a smaller venture, then you will more than likely not have an accountant producing reams and reams of figure and incomprehensible statistics. But, you will have management accounts, these will be in your head, or if you need to, put down quickly when you consider the last months business activity.

You will know what you have sold, what your costs are likely to be and as a consequence what the profit/loss is.

As part of this, you need to consider the ongoing fixed costs, including business insurance.

You may receive an annual quote from your appointed business insurance broker of, say £1,000. Divide by 10 or 12, depending on the instalment deal, and you can work out what your costs will be. This can be added together with your other fixed (premises, rental, power etc) costs.

But watch out for instalment charge, in 2010, you should not pay any more than 5% for your instalments. In most cases, you will get these free. Whilst a few per cent may not seem like much, depending on your actual insurance premium, a bit of shopping around to an interest free option, can save you money.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker | No Comments »