Although the UK has a great history in financial services (including business insurance), it can seem at times that getting the right quote is akin to searching for the elusive needle in a haystack.
As we go through the tail end of the recession there are still a huge number of buildings and properties throughout the UK which remain empty. This is either because property owners cannot get the properties rented out or they are just biding their time until rental incomes increase.
In the meantime, as a property owner they need to make sure that they have adequate cover for their property. This covers two points, firstly there is the actual cover (ie fire, storm, flood etc) and secondly, there is the issue of making sure that the insurers have this covered on the correct policy wording.
As a business insurance broker, we have access to many different insurers and as you can imagine, each insurer has dozens and dozens of different types of policy wording. What this means is that you could have a property that is tenanted by a third party, owner occupied (including for business purposes) or it could be empty. Certain companies may cover this on one type of policy, whereas most will have a different wording for each type of tenancy (or otherwise).
The reason that insurers do this is because they have spent many years understanding the different types of risk associated with the different types of premises. This is why there are policies specifically for unoccupied building insurance. A standard policy will give much wider cover and a better price, for tenanted premises. As soon as it is empty or unoccupied, insurers will restrict the cover and charge a higher premium.
This may seem unfair, but the good news is that there are, amongst all the covers available, policies that do not charge the earth and do not have cover that is too restrictive. Don’t bother looking for the diamond in the rough yourself, come to us and let us do the hard work for you.